Departure
by ForeverWinchester
Summary: What if Sam and Dean had a younger sister, Alexa? Would she be as good of a hunter as her older brothers? Or will things turn out for the worst for the youngest Winchester? Sister!fic
1. Chapter 1

"Bobby, he said he was gonna call when he was leaving! That should have been over 9 hours ago! He should have called by now!" I groaned as I paced Bobby's kitchen

Girl, if you don't quit ya worrying, I'm gonna lock you down in the basement. He'll be here." Bobby replied before standing up from his chair and walking outside

"But what if something's wrong?! And he's hurt?" I yelled out to him

"He's not."

"Ugh." I growled and moved to grab a beer from the fridge, and slumped against the counter

Dean had been gone for 5 days, and like he promised, he had called at least twice a day, but he hadn't called once today, and I was starting to get nervous. Dean's my older brother and he's pretty much my sole care taker. Not that I need one, I mean, I'm 17 years old and I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but I would never complain about Dean being around. Our other brother Sam is kind of my other care taker, but he's off at Stanford. But Dean? He's always been around. Never once left me alone. We were always close, but once Sam left, we grew inseparable. Mom always said that when I was a baby, Dean was the only one able to get any sort of response out of me for the longest time. At least that's what I'm told. Our mom died when I was 6 months old in a house fire. That was the second house fire that our family had. The first was on Sam's six month birthday, but thankfully Dad had gotten mom, Sam and Dean out before anything happened. Then, when she died, Dad finally lost it. Picked us up and we headed for the road, and been here ever since.

I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard the front door opened and Bobby spoke,

"Well it's about damn time. How ya doing boy? Any sign of him?"

"No. Nothing. Just a buncha dead ends." Wait. I knew that voice.

"DEAN!" I screeched as I ran out of the kitchen, down the front porch steps, and into his arms

He immediately dropped his duffle onto the gravel driveway and picked me up. We stayed in that position for what felt like forever

"Well hello to you too peanut." He smiled as he put me back down on the ground, "Now that's what you call a hello Bobby."

"Oh yeah. I'll get right on that." Bobby laughed

By this time, we had moved and me and Dean sat down on the steps while Bobby went inside. My head was leaning on his shoulder when I spoke,

"You didn't call." I whispered, "I thought… I thought …"

"Hey. None of that." He said as he ran his hand through my hair, "I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere Lex. You hear me?" he whispered before kissing the top of my head, and I settled closer to him. Ever since Sam left, just being next to Dean would calm me down and make me feel ten times better. Even when Dad was around, it was Dean I turned to

"Look," Dean spoke up, "I think we need some help."

"Well obviously. Have you seen us?" I snorted

"Not what I meant smartass. Help finding dad."

That made me snap my head up and I narrowed my eyes,

"NO. Dean, no. We don't need some stranger! The four of us. Bobby. That's all I trust." I said I stood up off the porch and stood in front of him

"What about trust?" Bobby asked as he walked back outside

"This dufus wants help finding dad. I don't trust other hunters Dean, and they sure as hell don't like us."

"Gee, I wonder why." Dean snorted

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!" I yelled and crossed my arms

"Well, you aren't exactly the nicest person to be around at times hunny." Bobby said sheepishly

"I'm nice!"

"Yes, you are. When you want to be. But when something happens that you don't like, or someone pisses you off, well people don't wanna be in the same state as you, let alone the same room." Dean smirked

"Well sorry for not letting people walk all over me. That's all any hunter ever does when they're around. Use me, then toss me aside. But whatever. I'll just let them next time. No problem." Dean stood up from the porch steps and stood in front of me

"What do you mean 'use you'" he growled, and I could tell the overprotective side was kicking in, "Have any of them – Has anyone – "

"Had anyone touched you?" Bobby finished for Dean when he realized that Dean couldn't and I could see Dean cringe out of the corner of my eye

"What?! No! God no. Ew." Neither of their facial expressions changed, so I elaborated, " I swear. I meant with hunts. Like use me for research or supplies or other shit like that. Not sex!" they both cringed, so I spoke up again, "Guys. Come on. You know me. You know I'd never take any shit from anyone if they ever tried anything. Plus, if anyone ever tried anything, I'd throw him at you guys and let you tear him a new one." I smiled, trying to make the air a little lighter

"We're going to get Sam." He sighed after a long, silent minute, "And I don't like the language."

"Wha- What?" I asked, ignoring his langauge comment

"When I said I wanted to get help, I meant Sam."

I was vaguely away of Bobby walking back inside, but I was so dazed by what Dean said, I barely even noticed

"Really?" I whispered, "I mean – really? You're sure? I mean, things didn't really end so great between you two."

"Well, if I remember correctly, it didn't end that smoothly for you either peanut."

It was true. The night Sam had left, I was a mess. Things were said that had cut deep. Sure, he had only said those things so it would be easier for us to let him go, but that doesn't mean it hurt any less. Even if the things he said hurt, that wasn't w3hat crushed me the most. What hurt the most was just the fact that he was able to leave us so easily. Like we meant absolutely nothing to him. That he could just leave and not even look back. I had called him hundreds of times over the last 4 years, and he _**never once**_ answered. Dean knew that I called him all the time, and he knew that I was hurt every time he didn't answer. But he never said anything. Just let me climb into bed with him and fall asleep.

"Let's not get into that, yeah?" I spat, "Look, Dean, if we're gonna go get Sam, you should be prepared that he may not be the same Sammy that he was when he left us. He's normal now. And he might not wanna leave."

"I know. You think I don't know that?!" he growled, " I need him back Lex. I need him. He's all I have." He whispered

Now don't get me wrong, I love my brother. God knows I love him. But he can be the stupidest piece of shit on the planet when he wants to be.

"Whatever. I'll get my stuff." I mumbled as I trudged up the stairs

"Lex! Lex, come on!" he yelled after me, knowing he pissed me off. Over the last couple years, I had frequently gotten pissed off at Dean, so he was now aware of what I acted like when I was mad

"Screw you!" I yelled before slamming my door shut

I understand that Dean and Sam had 4 years together, before I was born, but every once in a while, Dean will let it slip that he misses Sam. That he wants Sam back, and I know he doesn't mean anything by it, but I can hear the underlying message. That he is getting tired of it just being me around every day. That he wants Sam around because he can't stand being around me some of the time. And I mean, I get it, I can be a huge bitch sometimes, but it kind of hurts knowing that most days he wants Sam around more than me. I quickly moved around my room at Bobby's and gathered my clothes before deciding to jump into the shower.

"Lex?" I heard from outside the bathroom

"One sec!" I yelled out and quickly finished my shower, put on my shorts and a t shirt, and walked out into my room, "Yeah?"

"You all packed?"

"Mhm." I hummed as I moved to the mirror to comb my hair. I could see Dean sitting on the bed wringing his hands, and I knew he was trying to think of what to say

"Stop it, Dean."

"What?"he asked as he head snapped up

"You're gonna rip your fingers off. If you're gonna say something, say it. If not, I got stuff to finish packing."

He was quiet for another minute, and right as I was about to say something, he spoke up,

"I'm sorry Lex."

"Dean, don't- "

"No, I shouldn't have said that. You know I need you around right? It's just – ever since Dad left, it's been hard, ya know? I've always had you three to count on. Always. And then Sam goes and leaves us to be normal and Dad goes and disappears, and it was just me and you against the world."

"Just like we always said it would be." I whispered as I sat down next to him

"Just like we always said." He smiled softly, "But we have a chance to get Sammy back Lex. I can't – "

"You can't pass it up."

"No."

I nodded and stoop up. I knew he was right and I knew what we had to do

"Well, what are you waiting for? We have a string bean to pick up." I smiled


	2. Pilot

"Lex. Hey. Come on sleeping beauty. Wake up." Dean whispered as he ran his fingers through my hair

I slowly uncurled myself from the tight ball that I was laying in and took my head off of Dean's lap. I had fallen asleep right around when we got out of South Dakota.

"We here?" I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes and sat up

"Are you kidding? We still have like 8 hours to go peanut." He smirked, "Now get out and go get something that'll hold you over 'till we stop." He said as he slipped out of the car and over to the back of the car to start pumping the gas

"You want anything?"

"Just grab me whatever. You need cash?" he yelled back to me

I just shook my head and walked inside the gas station. It was always the same when we were out on the road. Dean would drive for hours while I slept somewhere in the car, then we'd stop and get food in a dirty gas station, then after driving for another crazy amount of time, we'd stop at some small diner and a motel. I always yelled at Dean for not letting me drive and let him sleep. No matter what I would say to him, he would **never** let me drive. There was absolutely no point in me getting my license because I was never allowed to drive anywhere.

"How are you today?" I heard from behind me

I whipped my head around and saw a man, a little older than Dean, standing behind the counter, smiling at me

"Fine. Thanks." I smiled and grabbed a couple things to eat

"Never seen you around here before." He spoke up again

"Nice observation skills." This guys was starting to get on my nerves. I was already hungry, tired, and cranky, so I was not about to take any of his bullshit

"Sassy and beautiful." He murmered as I made my way up to the register to pay

"Okay mister, I'm not here to make friends. I want to pay for these and get the hell out of this crap town, 'kay?" I spat as I threw down the multiple bags of chips, candy bars, pie, and a couple drinks

"I can show you that it's not such a crap town if you'd like." He winked

Okay, that was it. I looked around me to make sure there were no video cameras, which there weren't. Best thing about cheap gas station? They never had anything that they would be able to track us. So I pulled the gun out of the back of my pants and held it up to show the man

"Look, I'm really not in the mood for some creep to hit on me… In a dirty gas station no less. So I suggest that you shut that hole in your head and let me pay for these, before I get angry." I smirked

The smirk on his face immediately dropped when he noticed the gun in my hands,

"You – uhm – you can just have them. D-don't worry about the cash." he stuttered

"Awe. Thanks." I smiled as I grabbed the food and shoved it into a small grocery bag, "You have a great day." I smiled as I waved good bye to him with the gun

"Y-You too." He mumbled

I stuck my gun back in the back of my jeans as I walked back out to the car, only to see Dean back in the car

"Jeez, took ya long enough. I was about to come in and make sure you were still there." He growled as I slid back inside the car, "You okay?"

"Oh yeah. I'm fine." I smiled as I took out a chocolate bar and took a bite, "The guy inside might need a couple therapy sessions though."

"You're kidding. What did you do to him Lex?" he groaned, but I could tell he was trying to keep in a laugh

"Nothing awful." He gave me a look, "I swear! He was just being a creep so I pulled my gun out. I didn't do anything with it! I just showed him I had it. But hey! He was nice enough to give us all this stuff for free!" I smiled brightly at my brother

"Lexxx." He groaned, "You can't keep doing that every time someone pisses you off. This is why people don't like you." He laughed as he pulled out of the station

"Well, would you have rather me whip out my gun, or let him be a complete perv? 'Cause I mean, I can do both."

"Shut up." He laughed, "Oh! Did you get th-"

"You really think I'd forget?" I asked as I pulled the slice of pie out of the bag

"Ahh, you're the best." He groaned as he grabbed the box

"And don't you forget it." I giggled as I turned the volume knob up almost all the way and started singing along to Pour Some Sugar On Me.

I'm not sure how many naps I'd taken or how many times I had made Dean stop so I could pee, but we had finally made it to Stanford around 10:45 at night.

"So…. You happen to know which room's his?" Dean asked sheepishly

"Are you kidding me?" I gawked at him, "You made us drive all this way, and you don't even know where is god damn room is? You've got to be fucking kidding me." I groaned

"Hey! Langauge." He warned

"Seriously? You're getting mad at me for my language? Seriously? Have you met you?" I shouted

"Yeah, well I'm older."

"Oh shove it." I growled as I got out of the car when I noticed a guy walking out of the building

"Where are you going? Lex! Get back in the car!" Dean yelled from inside the car

I flashed him the finger and ran up to the guy

"Hey! Excuse me!" I ran up to him and stopped him

"Oh. Hi."

"Hi. Uhm, do you go here?" I asked sheepishly

"Y-yes." He stuttered

"Awesome! Wow, you must be really smart. Smart's hot." I smiled, twirling my hair

"Yeah, I- uh – I guess I'm pretty smart."

"Could you help with something?"

"Sure." He replied

"Great. My brother goes here, and he invited me for the weekend, but he never told me where his room is. Could you help me?"

"What's his name?" the guy asked

"Sam."

"Winchester?"

I froze. Either this guy knew Sam, or there was something supernatural going on here.

"Uh, yeah. You know him?"

"Yeah. He's dating Jess. My roommate's good friends with him. He's in room 236B."

"Wow. Thank you so much!" I smiled and pecked him on the cheek before running back to the car

"236B. We going in through the window?" I smirked when I saw his gawking at me

"I don't like how you got it, but let's go." He said as we slipped out of the car and ran silently up the fire escape stairs

"You ready?"

"Get your ass moving Dean." I rolled my eyes as he unlocked the window and we slid inside

Just as we both landed quietly inside the apartment, of course Dean has to be a klutz and hit a pan sitting on the counter, making it clink against a glass

"Way to go dumbass." I whispered

All of a sudden, someone lunged forward and grabbed Dean on the shoulder. Dean, knowing Sam hasn't used any of his fighting skills in a while, used that to his advantage and flung Sam's hand off of his shoulder.

Dean grabbed Sam's arm, and swung him around, shoving him down on the ground, one hand on Sam's neck, and the other holding Sam's wrist to the ground

"Easy there Tiger." Dean smirked

"Dean?" Sam groaned while Dean laughed, "You scared the crap out of me!"

"That's 'cause you're out of practice." Dean replied, but before I could say anything, Sam flipped them over, so that Sam was now pinning Dean down to the ground

"Or not. " Dean laughed, "Get off me."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asked as he pulled Dean up from the ground

"Well, I was looking for a beer. And this midget needed to pee."

Sam finally realized that I was standing in the corner of the room because he finally looked up and saw me standing there

"Lex." He sighed

"Hiya Sam." I smiled sadly from next to Dean

"What are you guys doing here?

"Okay. All right. We gotta talk." Dean finally said

"Uh, the phone?" Sam snorted

"Ha! You're shitting me." I snorted

"Hey, Lex. Shh. It's alright." Dean whispered to me before kissing the top of my head

"If I'd' called, would you have picked up?"

"Of course he wouldn't. He doesn't need us Dean. He's normal now." I snarled

Before Sam could respond, the light in the kitchen turned on and a girl in short shorts and t shirt - or what was left of a t shirt – walked in

"Sam?" she asked

"Jess. Hey." He said and moved to stand next to the girl, Jess, "Dean, Lex, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

I knew as soon as she stepped into the room that Dean was going to make some pigheaded comment, like he always does when he's around girls, so I just prepared myself for how bad it could get

"Wait, your brother Dean? And little sister?" Jess smiled

"Oh, I love the Smurfs." Dean smirked and I slapped in upside the head, "Ouch." He whined and rubbed the back of my head

"You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league. "

"Just let me put something on. " Jess laughed

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously."

"Seriously? Stop being a pig Dean." I rolled my eyes and pulled him back to stand next to me, "Anyway, we gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some **private** family stuff." I emphasized the private, "But it was great meeting you." I said sarcastically

"No." Sam said loudly, "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

"Fine." I smiled

"Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days." Dean said seriously

"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later." Sam laughed

This obviously wasn't going anywhere with Sam being a smartass, so I took charge,

"Okay smartass. Dad went on a hunting trip."

"And he hasn't been home in a few days." Dean finished

You could see Sam's expression take a total 180 and his smile dropped,

"Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside."

Finally, we got through his thick skull. We went outside to his fire escape stairs and walked down the ground

"I mean, come on. You can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you." Sam complained as we walked downstairs

"You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. We need you to help us find him."

Sam rolled his eyes

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine."

I stopped immediately and turned to face the younger of my older brothers.

"Not for this long. He always comes back on time. Or he calls if he knows he won't make it on time. Always. Now are you gonna come with us or not?" I spat

"I'm not." He whispered

I nodded my head and I could feel all the emotions building inside me again. This is exactly why I didn't want to come and pick up Sam. I knew that this is exactly what was going to happen. He was happy here. He had a new, normal life, and he wanted nothing to do with us anymore . I wasn't surprised.

"Why not?" Dean asked

"He's different now Dean. Doesn't want this life anymore." I said quietly

"I swore I was done hunting. For good." Sam replied

"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." Dean said, hopeful that our brother would change his mind

"Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45." Sam complained

"Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark."

"Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me?" I practically screeched

"You know what we do Sam. Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there." Dean chuckled dryly

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her." Sam sighed, "But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find."

"Yeah, well we save a hellofava a lot of people doing it, too." I retorted

This was getting ridiculous. Either he was coming with us or not

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Sam asked, quietly breaking me out of my thoughts when he brought up mom. Every time someone mentioned her, I could feel the emotions bubbling over and it hurt, honestly. Because everyone else knew her. Remembered what she looked like, and sounded like, and I have nothing.

"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors. " Sam continued

"So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?" Dean asked as we made our way over to the impala

"No. Not normal. Safe. "

"And that's exactly why he ran away." I whispered

"I was just going to college Lex! You know, that thing we **always **used to talk about? It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

It was quiet for a minute, nobody said anything, and I was guessing that Dean was taking in the fact that me and Sam used to talk about going away to college all the time. I felt bad for never telling Dean about it, but after Sam left for college, and I saw what it did to him, I knew I could never leave.

"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it." I flinched at Dean's statement, but I knew it could be true. That there was a possibility of him being dead

"I can't do this alone." That, that sentence right there is what made the dam break. Those five words. Because I knew that's what he really felt. That he was alone. So at this point, when the few tears fell from my eyes, I couldn't stop them. I knew that Dean didn't know what he said, or that he wasn't thinking, but it didn't matter. It hurt just the same

"Lex." He sighed when he realized what he had said. He looked over at him and tried to pull me closer to him, but I quickly moved to the side so he couldn't reach me, "Lex." He pleaded

"I – uhm – I'll be in the car." My voice broke at the end and I silently walked to the back of the car and slid in.

I know it probably shouldn't bother me this much that Dean said he needed Sam, just for the simple fact that I knew Dean had been missing Sam and looking forward to the day we finally got to come to Stanford and pick him up for almost four years now. But I didn't know that as soon as we got to Sam, he's just drop me like I was nothing. We've always been closer than that. There was never anything that could separate us, ever. So it was kind of like a punch in the face by reality I guess.

I was too busy thinking and not really paying attention to anything else, so I didn't hear the door open, and I didn't see Dean slip into the back seat, next to me.

"Lexi." He whispered so softly, that if he wasn't a foot away from me, I wouldn't have heard it

"Don't. It's fine." I replied, not taking my gaze away from the window

Dean sighed and I could feel him scooting closer to me, before I felt his hand on my cheek, moving my head so I was now facing him

"Hey. I'm sorry peanut. I didn't mean anything by it. I was just-"

"Excited to see Sam. I get it. I do."

"But that's no excuse. I shouldn't have said that. It's always been the two of us. Even, no, especially, when Sam left. It'll always be Scooby and Shaggy peanut." He smiled as he wiped the tears off of my cheeks, "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It's over and I'm just being a big baby." I smiled, "So, is he coming?"

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I was stretched out on top of the trunk of the car while Sam was sitting in the passenger seat, going through Dean's music. That's the other downside of Sam tagging along. I got shoved into the back seat. I hated it back there.

"Lord, I was born a ramblin' man . Tyrin' to make a livin' and doin' the best that I can." I sang along with the music as I saw Dean walk out of the gas station

"Hey! Off the car!" he yelled as he walked down towards the car and tossed me a bag of chips and a bottle of water

"You want breakfast?" he asked Sam

"No, thanks."

"Ahh, still on that health kick Sam?" I laughed

"Sorry I don't like all that greasy shit." He replied, "So how'd you pay for that stuff? You guys and Dad still running credit card scams?

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career." I muttered as I took a gulp of water

"Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards." Dean snickered as he put the nozzle back in the pump.

"Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?"

"Uh, Burt Aframian." Dean smiled as he walked around the car, "Get'cha ass in the car." He smirked as he shoved me towards the backseat

"Ass." I laughed as I punched him in the arm and he got into the driver's side,

"And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal.

"That sounds about right. Lex, uh, you don't have one, do you?" Sam asked quietly

"No. Dad and Burt over here won't let me even apply." I gorlwed from behind them. It was ridiculous. I wanted to help them, at least in some small, insignificant way, but they wouldn't even let me do that.

"Lex. You're 17. I don't want you having a record at 17 freaking years old. No chance in you applying for a fake credit card." Dean replied

"But Dean – "

"But nothing. End of story." He said calmly

"I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection." Sam laughed, changing the subject, from the passenger seat

"Why?"

"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes."

"He kinda has a point Dean. I mean, it's 2005, there's these cool new things call CD's and they hold music too." I smirked

Sam chuckled,

"And two, Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."

"Hey! They aren't awful Sammy." I argued

"Well, house rules, Sammy. " Dean said as he popped the cassette into the player, "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole."

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old." Sam said quietly

"Yeah, well so is peanut, but that doesn't stop either of you from calling me that." I really didn't mind either of them calling me peanut, it was kind of a security blanket thing, but I wanted them to know that I wasn't some little, defenseless girl anymore

"Well you'll always be peanut to us." He smiled, " And it's Sam, okay?"

"Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud." Dean smiled and pulled out of the parking lot.

This was going to be a long drive

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We'd been driving all night, trying to find anyone who knew anything about dad, only to come up empty-handed.

"Thank you." Sam grumbled as he shut his phone, "All right. So, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue. So that's something, I guess."

"Check it out." Dean said as we pulled up to a bridge, covered in different types of officers

"What the hell happened here?" I asked

Dean pulled over and we just looked at the scene before us before he shut the car off. I saw him reach across Sam and pull out the box from the glove compartment

"Awesome. What are we today?" I asked, excited that we were stopping for a potential job

"You're not going as anything. You ass is staying in the car till we say so. Got it?" he looked back at me and smiled

"No! Dean, that's not fair!" I growled

"Lex, you're 18. There's no way you'd pass for anything. They might be cops, but they ain't stupid."

"Ugh. I hate you guys." I groaned and laid down in the backseat

"Let's go." Dean said to Sam and they both slid out of the car

I'm not sure how long I was alone, but it didn't seem that long before they slid back inside the car

"So what's going on?" I asked, sticking my head between my two brothers

"Guy murdered in his car. They don't know what did it. They think it's some serial killer. But I'm not sure." Sam responded

"Well, Sammy here knows what he's doing. Looks like we're staying for a little

"Yes." I smiled, "I've been bored lately."

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We drove into town after Sam and Dean met with the police on the bridge. The town was kind of odd. Not very many people were around town and the marquee on the local movie Theater read:

_**EMERGENCY TOWN HALL MEETING**_

_**SUNDAY 8 PM**_

_**BE SAFE OUT THERE **_

"Hey! Wait. Stop the car Dean." I said quickly when I saw a girl, who must have been Amy, hanging up missing person posters.

"What?!" they both yelled

"Just follow me." I replied and got out of the car

"You must be Amy." I said quietly as I walked up to her

"Yeah." She whispered

"Hi." I smiled, "Oh, god. Sorry, this has got to be awkward. I'm Alexa, Troy's cousin. He told us a lot about you."

"We're his uncles. I'm Dean, this is Sammy."

"He never mentioned you to me." She said, a little suspicion in her voice

"Well, that's Troy, I guess." Dean said we followed her down the street

"Yeah, we're not around much, we're up in Modesto." I finished

"So, we're looking for him too, and we're kinda asking around." Sam cut in

Suddenly, another girl walked up and went straight over to Amy. It must have been a friends or something because they were pretty close

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked

"Yeah."

"You mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Sam asked quietly, he was always good in a situation with emotional people. Dean? Not so much. Me on the other hand? I was a girl, so it came kind of naturally I guess. We made our way inside the diner that was next door and all five of us sat down in a booth. I had to pull a chair up and sit next to Dean since the booth could only hold four people

"I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and...he never did."

"He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?"

"No. Nothing I can remember." She shook her head, and seemed to get more upset

"I like your necklace." I said suddenly

Dean and Sam both looked over at me with questioning looks, but I just shook my headm telling them not now, and that I knew what I was doing

Amy held up the necklace in her hands and looked down at it

"Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents—" she laughed, "—with all that devil stuff."

Sam laughed a little and then looked over at Dean and I

"Actually, it means just the opposite. A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing."

"Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries." Dean chuckled

"Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything..." Dean said, moving to lean across the table to get closer to the girls and the girls lookedat each other

"What is it?" I asked

"Well, it's just... I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk." Rachel said quietly

"What do they talk about?" Sam, Dean, and I all asked at the same time

"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago."

"And..?" I asked

"Well, supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever.

Sam, Dean, and I all looked at each other and automatically knew. This chick, whoever she was, whatever she was, is what we were dealing with

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We got to the library shortly after our conversation with Amy and Rachel. We went straight to the computer and Dean sat down at the computer and tried to find anything on this ghost

"Dude… do you even know how to work a computer?" I laughed

"Screw you. Of course I do." He replied

"Dean, come on, you've tried like 10 things already. You obviously don't know what you're doing." I complained, getting bored just standing there

"Let me try." Sam said suddenly

"I got it." Dean slapped Sam's hand away, but before he could keep 'researching,' Sam shoved Dean's chair across the room

"Dude!" he complained and I giggled, "You shut it." He pointed at me, "You're such a control freak man."

"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?"

"Yeah." Dean and I said together

"Well, maybe it's not murder." Sam thought aloud

He replaced "Murder" with "Suicide" and all of a sudden, an article named _**"Suicide on Centennial" **_popped up.

"April 25, 1981." I read aloud, "A local woman's drowning death was ruled a suicide, the county Sheriff's Department said earlier today. Constance Welch, 24, of 4636 Breckenridge Road, leapt off Sylvania Bridge, at mile 33 of Centennial Highway, and subsequently drowned last night.

Deputy J. Pierce told reporters that, hours before her death, Ms. Welch logged a call with 911 emergency services. In a panicked tone, Ms. Welch described how she found her two young children, 5 and 6, in the bathtub, after leaving them alone for several minutes.

"'What happened to my children was a terrible accident. And it must have been too much for my wife. Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch. 'Now I ask that you all please respect my privacy during this trying time.' At the time of the children's death and Ms. Welch's subsequent suicide, Mr. Welch was at the Frontier auto salvage yard, where he works the graveyard shift as associate manager." I read the short article out loud to my brothers

"Does it say why she did it?" Dean asked

"Yeah."

"What?"

"An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die." Sam said quietly

"Hm." Dean hummed as he closed his eyes

"'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch."' Sam read the quote under the picture on the article

"Hey. Look at the bridge." I pointed out

"That look familiar to you?" Dean asked

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SYLVANIA BRIDGEEXT. SYLVANIA BRIDGE – NIGHT

We all decided to head over to the bridge that night and see if we could find anything un natural about the bridge

"So this is where Constance took the swan dive."

"So you think Dad would have been here?" Sam asked

"Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." Dean said

"Okay, so now what?" I asked

"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while." Dean replied with a smile

"Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday— "

I knew it was coming. I knew Dean had forgotten, or chosen to forget about Sam having to be back by Monday. And I knew Dean wasn't going to be happy about dropping Sammy off and leaving him.

"Monday. Right. The interview."

"Yeah." He nodded

"Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?" Dean joked

"Dean. Stop it." I begged

"Maybe. Why not?"

"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"

"Dean. Please. Just stop." I pleaded with him and pulled on his arm

"No, and she's not ever going to know."

"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." Dean said before turning around and walking away

"And who's that?" Sam yelled, following Dean. I wasn't just gonna stand there alone, so I followed behind them both

"You're one of us." Dean smiled, motioning between himself and me

"No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."

I hated this. I hated when they fought, because it never turned out well, for any of us. And of course, when they fought, I was always caught in the middle of it.

"You have a responsibility to—" Deans started, but Sam cut him off

"To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." He growled

All of a sudden, Dean grabbed ahold of Sam's jacket, and shoved him into the side of the bridge. I yelped louder than I ever thought I could and put my hand over my mouth. I could see my vision getting blurry, and I knew that I had tears in my eyes"

"Guys. Please just stop it. Just – please." I begged

They both looked over at me and I saw Dean's face soften and he let go of Sam

"Don't talk about her like that." He whispered and turned around

"Guys."

We immediately turned to look at what Dean was seeing and we saw Constance standing on the edge of the bridge, but then, she took a step and just disappeared. We all ran over to see if we could see where she went, but there was nothing there

"Where'd she go?" I muttered

"I don't know."

All of a sudden, the impala's lights turned on and I could hear the engine starting to reeve up

"What the— "

"Who's driving your car?" Sam asked, worridly

Dean pulled the keys out of his pocket and jingled them. Sam and I glanced at them before realizes that this must be Constance controlling the car. Then, the car jerked into motion, heading straight for us. "Dean?" I screamed

"Go! Go!" he yelled

The car was moving faster than we were. I knew that for sure. Then, when it got too close, Sam grabbed ahold of my waist and held on tight

"Hold on. Don't let go!" he yelled before he jumped over the side of the bridge

I had my arms around his neck and my legs wrapped tightly around his waist as he grabbed onto the bar and pulled us up into a sitting position.

"You okay?" he asked

I couldn't find my voice, so I just nodded fiercely into his shoulder. This was the first time since we picked up Sam that we hugged, or were even close to each other and it was nice. Then the thought of Dean running down the bridge got back into my mind

"DEAN!" I screamed and looked around

"Dean? Dean!" Sam yelled

I looked down below and saw a moody mess crawl out of the river and I threw my head back, laughing

"What?" he asked

"Hey! Are you all right?" Sam asked

"I'm super." Dean replied, throwing up the O.K symbol

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Dean had finally made his way back up to the bridge and the two of them were now leaning on the hood, and I sat behind them both.

"Your car all right?"

"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!" Dean yelled into the night

"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure. So where's the job go from here, genius?" Sam laughed

Dean threw his arms up in the air in defeat and then started flicking the dried mud off of his jacket and making a face

"You smell like a toilet."

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We got to the closest motel and we walked up to the clerk, me and Sam still laughing at the fact that Dean was still covered in mud and smelled nasty

"One room, please." Dean asked

"You guys having a reunion or something?" the motel clerk asked when he looked down at 'Dean's' credit card

"What do you mean?"

"I had another guy, Burt Aframian. He came and bought out a room for the whole month.

At that, the three of us all looked at each other, knowing what this meant. Dad had been here.

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We had gotten into Dad's room and immediately stopped dead in our tracks. The room was covered in magazine clippings, and newspaper articles. There was food left all over the room and the bed was unmade

"Whoa."

"Gross." I scrunched up my nose

Dean walked over to the bed side table and turned on the light. Noticing there was a burger next to the lamp, he picked it up

"Uhh – I wouldn't do that Dean!" I warned

But he sniffed it anyway and recoiled quickly

"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least."

"Salt, cats-eye shells...he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in." Sam said from the window

"What is that?" I asked, walking up to Dean to try and see what the papers were that he was looking at

"Centennial Highway victims."

There pictures of at least six different guys hanging on the wall. All died on the highway

"I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs-" I started "—ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right?" Dean thought aloud

"Well what do these guys have in common?"

I looked at all the clippings and pictures and different things that dad had circled on, and it suddenly clicked

"Dad figured it out." I whispered

Both Sam and Dean turned to look at me

"What do you mean?"

"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white." Sam answered once he saw what I was looking at

"You sly dogs." Dean chuckled, "All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it."

"She might have another weakness."

"Well, Dad would want to make sure." I pointed out, there was no way Dad would leave anyway for this chick to be kept alive

"He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"

"No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband." Sam said

"Says he's thirty; the article dates to 1981, so he must be like sixty-four." I said

They both looked over at me with a confused look

"What? You both know I'm good at math." I shrugged

" Yeah, well that's if he's still alive."

"All right. Why don't you, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up." Dean suggested before moving towards the bathroom

"Hey, Dean?"

He stopped and turned back around to face us

"What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry." Sam said softly

"No chick-flick moments." Dean smirked while holding his hand up

"All right. Jerk."

"Bitch."

"Awe. Look at you two. Being all happy and brotherly again." I said as I walked up to Sam and pinched his cheeks

"Shut up." He laughed as he swatted my hands away

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Sam was sitting on the bed listening to come voicemail he'd gotten from Jess earlier that day. I had to admit it, but I kinda liked the girl. She seemed good for Sam. Sure, I'd been a bitch to her when we first met, but I knew I was wrong and the only reason I didn't like her was because I was looking at her as the girl who took my Sammy away from me

"Hey, guys. I'm starving, I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You want anything?" Dean asked as he walked out of the bathroom

"No." Sam answered immediately

"Aframian's buying." He smiled

Sam shook his head,

"Uh – uh."

"Alright. Whatever. How about you peanut?" Dean turned to look at me

"Uhh, chicken fingers. Extra fries." I smiled and walked over to look at the pictures dad had hanging on the wall

"Alright. I'll be right back." He said as he walked out of the room

Sam was still sitting on the bed when all of a sudden he facial expression changed

"What?" he growled, and stood up, "What about you?"

He quickly slammed his cell phone shut and ran a hand down his face

"What the hell's going on!? Sam?" I asked, frantically

"Cops got Dean. We gotta take off. Now." He said quickly, grabbing as much as he could from the walls and shoving into his bag

"If – if they have him, that means they're outside. How are we gonna get out?" I asked, shoving papers into my bag as well

"Uh- bathroom. It has a window." He said

"Sam. You can't fit out that window." I giggled softly, picturing my Sasquatch of a brother trying to squeeze through the tiny window

"Well, we don't really have any other options, now do we?" he groaned as we moved into the bathroom

"Alright."

"Okay, I'm gonna lift you up and get you out first. I'll toss you my bags. If you're out and one of the cops gets in here before I can get out, you run. Got it?" he said seriously

"No. No way I'm leaving you in there to get eaten by those dogs." I growled

"Alexa. This isn't a question. You run." He said, looking me in the eyes, and I knew he was 100% serious because he used my full name. No one ever used my full name

"Okay." I said softly

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"No. No way you're leaving me in the car again. Not this time buddy." I complained

"Lex, what are you planning on telling him, huh? You're 17."

"I don't care. I'm going with you. Now get out pf the damn car and get your ass up to that house." I smiled and got out of the car. We walked up to the front door and the guys who answered it was undoubtedly Joseph Welch

"Hi. Are you Joseph Welch?" I asked sweetly

"Yeah." She answered skeptically

We started walking down the driveway and then I remembered I had a picture of dad that I could show him to make sure that Dad had actually been here

"Uhm, was this the man you spoke to?" I asked as I handed him the photo

"Yeah, he was older, but that's him." Joseph replied , "He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter."

"That's right. We're working on a story together." Sam said quickly and I nodded

"Well, I don't know what the hell kinda story you're working on. The questions he asked me?"

"About your wife, Constance?" I asked softly, not wanting to make the situation bad if I brought up his dead wife

"He asked me where she was buried."

"And where is that again?" Sam asked

"What, I gotta go through this twice?"

"It's fact-checking. If you don't mind." I said, needing him to tell us where she was buried

"In a plot. Behind my old place over on Breckenridge."

"And why did you move?"

"I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died." He said obviously

"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?" I asked him kindly

"No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known." He smiled, like he was proud that he got a pretty girl

"So you had a happy marriage?" Sam asked

It was quiet for a minute before Joseph finally replied,

"Definitely."

"Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time."

We were walking towards the car when I got an idea

"Mr. Welch, have you ever heard of something called a woman in white?" I asked and Sam pulled on my elbow

"What the hell are you doing?" he practically growled

"Just give me a minute." I said, yanking my arm out of his grip

"A what?"

"A woman in white. Or sometimes they're known as weeping woman?" I replied, but he just stared at me, "It's kind of like a ghost story. Well, more of a phenomenon, really."

Once again, all Joseph did was stare at me, so I went on, "Um, they're spirits. They've been around for hundreds of years, all over the world. They're all different women, but share the same story."

"Okay, I don't care much for nonsense."

Sam must have caught on, because he stepped forward and took my spot explaining

"See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them." That made Joseph stop dead in his tracks, "And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children." Joseph turned around abruptly, "Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again."

"You think...you think that has something to do with...Constance? You smartass!" Joseph yelled

"You tell us." I remarked

"I mean, maybe...maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance, she never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!" he screamed before walking back inside and clamming the door

"Well that went well." I growled as we made our way back to the car, "Hey, I gotta make a call, one sec." I said as we slid into the car

"Seriously? You're something."

I beamed at him and dialed the number

"911 what's you're emergency they lady on the other end of the phone answered

"Hi. Um, I was just driving by Whiteford Road and I heard shots- I'm not sure, I'm not from around here. – Oh, my name? Yeah of course, it's –" I shut my phone and ended the call

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Sam was now driving the impala down some deserted road and it was almost midnight when my cell phone started going off

"Fake 911 phone call? I don't know Lex, that's pretty illegal.

"You're welcome. Don't say I never do anything for you." I smiled into the phone

"Listen, we gotta talk." He started,

"Yeah, one sec, lemme put you on speaker so Sammy can here."

"Hey bro. Listen, we gotta talk." He repeated

"Tell me about it. So the husband was unfaithful. We are dealing with a woman in white. And she's buried behind her old house, so that should have been Dad's next stop."

"Sammy, would you shut up for a second?" Dean barked

"I just can't figure out why Dad hasn't destroyed the corpse yet." Sam thought aloud

"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho."

My breathe caught in my through

"What? H- how do you know?" I stuttered

"I've got his journal." Dean sighed into the phone

"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing." Sam said sadly

"Yeah, well, he did this time."

"What's it say?" I asked, knowing that dad wouldn't just leave it around without having a note somewhere inside it

"Ah, the same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going."

"Coordinates." Sam and I said together

"Where to?" Sam finished

"I'm not sure yet."

"I don't understand. I mean, what could be so important that Dad would just skip out in the middle of a job?"

"What the hell is going on, Dean?" I asked angrily, "I mean, first he calls us and leaves that freaky ass message, and then he just rando-" the car screeched to a halt when Sam looked up and saw Constance just standing in the middle of the road

"Sam!? Alexa!?" I heard Dean yell from the phone, which was now laying on the bottom of the car

Sam and I sat there, breathing heavily, before he looked over at me,

"You okay?"

"Yeah, you?" he nodded and then, all of a sudden, Constance appeared in the car

"Take me home." She moaned from the backseat, "Take me home!" she yelled

"No." Sam growled

Constance glared at him and then locked the doors. I struggled, trying to unlock them before she showed up again, then car started speeding down the road

"Sam! What the hell are you doing? Stop the car!" I screamed

"It's not me!"

Sam tried to steer the car, or do anything that would make it easier to control the damn impala, but nothing was working. Before we knew it, the car pulled up in front of Constance's house and stopped shutting the engine and lights off.

"Don't do this." Sam pleaded when Constance appeared between the two of us

"I can never go home."

"You're scared to go home." I whispered, but I really wish I hadn't said anything. She turned to face and it was like she was looking right through me

"Whore." She growled, "Girls like you shouldn't get to live."

"W-what?" then I got it. She thought Sam was being unfaithful to his girlfriend with me. Which first of all, is absolutely disgusting, and second, is crazy, considering I'm his sister. But I guess she didn't know that, "No. N-n-n-no. He's not unfaithful!" I pleaded, but it didn't seem to matter

All of a sudden, there was a burning pain in my chest and I looked down and saw her hand reaching through my chest, disappearing inside.

"AHHHHH!" I screamed, "SAM!"

"Stop! Stop it! You can't kill us. I'm not unfaithful. I've never been!" Sam yelled and begged from the driver's side of the car

"You will be. Just hold me." Constance said calmly as she disappeared from above me

I sat there, panting and holding my chest for what seemed like forever, before I heard Sam cry out in pain. I looked over in time to see him rip his hoodie open, only to reveal five holes, where Constance's fingers had been. Then, a gun shot rang through the air and Constance disappeared, but she suddenly showed back up,

"Lex! Down!" Dean yelled and he kept shooting at her until she vanished

"I'm taking you home." Sam groaned as he turned on the car and drove right into the middle of the house

"Sam! Lex! You guys okay?" Dean asked frantically as he ran into the house behind the car

"I think..." Sam groaned, "Check Lex. Constance hurt her."

At that, Dean's attention immediately turned to me and he lifted my head from the back of the seat, "Lex? Hey peanut. You alright? What'd she do?"

"I'm…I'm fine. Just give me a minute. Kinda feels like excruciating heartburn." I moaned

"Can you guys move?" Dean asked

"Yeah. Get her out and help me?" Sam asked

Dean leaned inside the car and lifted me off the seat and carefully placed me, standing upright, on the ground

"You good to stand?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

He smiled and ruffled the top of my hair before going back into the car to help pull Sam out of the car

"There you go." He smiled as the three of us were now standing next to the impala

We looked arorund to see if we could find anything about Constance, but we saw her look up at us and throw the picture she was holding, down on the ground. She glared at us all of a sudden, a desk came flying towards us, pinning us to the car

"Ughh." I groaned as it hit my right in the hip bones

When the lights started flickering, Constance looked around, kind of looking somewhat scared. Without warning, water began pouring down the stairs, like someone had left the faucet running for too long, and we could faintly see the outlines of a small boy and girl holding hands

"You've come home to us, Mommy." They said in unison. It was probably one of the creepiest things I've ever heard

Then, all of sudden, Constance began to flip out. Spazzing around when the kids came down the stairs and gave her a hug. I guess this what she meant. We didn't need to burn her bones. We had to bring her home.

"So this is where she drowned her kids." Dean said

"That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them." Sam whispered

"You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy." Dean smirked as he slapped Sam in the chest where Constance had stuck her fingers and Sam groaned

"Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?" Sam chuckled

"Don't you know bullets don't do anything to spirits? I pointed out

"Hey. Saved your asses."

Sam and Dean flipped the desk off of us and Dean walked around the car to the driver's side

"I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car?" he turned to look at Sam, "I'll kill you."

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The Impala was tearing down the road; the right headlight blown out due to Sam's decision to run us into a building. Sam was sitting in the front seat, looking through Dad's journal and had a map on his lap, trying to find the coordinates of where dad was sending us next

"Okay, here's where Dad went." He said, pointing a group of trees in the middle of nowhere

"The forest?" I growled. I hated camping.

"It's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado." Sam replied

"Sounds charming. How far?" Dean asked

"About six hundred miles."

Dean shrugged, "Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning."

The car was quiet for minute,a dn I knew exactly what Sam was going to say

"Dean, I, um..."

"You're not going." I finished for him

"The interview's in like, ten hours. I gotta be there." Sam replied quietly

Dean and I both nodded, somewhat disappointed. It was nice to have Sammy back on the job with us, and now we had to drop him back off and forget about him? We couldn't do it.

"Yeah. Yeah, whatever." Dean sighed, looking over at Sam, "We'll take you home.

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We pulled up in front of Sam's apartment a couple hours later, and not much talking had occurred since the conversation about dropping Sammy off had happened. Sam silently got out of the front of the car and leaned into the window

"Call me if you find him?" he asked and Dean nodded, "And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?" Sam smiled sadly

"Yeah, all right." Dean responded, but I knew what he was really saying; _**That's not gonna happen and you know it. We're not gonna see you for a while Sammy.**_

Sam patted the side of the car a couple times before turning and starting to walk away, but I couldn't let him just leave. I couldn't

"Sam!" I yelled as I jumped out of the backseat

He turned around quick enough to catch me as I threw myself at him

"Oof." He groaned as he caught me, "Hey, shh." He whispered when my broken sobs finally escaped, "Shh shh. I'm gonna see you again peanut. I promise. Hey." He said and lifted my chin with his finger, "I love ya Lex."

"You too Sammy." I sighed as I tightly hugged him again before turning back towards the car

"Sam?" Dean called out, "You know, we made a hell of a team back there." He smiled

"Yeah." Sam smirked before turning to walk back inside his apartment.

I slid back inside the car and sat there silently as Dean pulled away from the curb and began to drive off

"You okay?" he asked, squeezing my leg

"Just drive." I whispered, wiping my face

It was about three minutes about after we pulled away from the school that I began to have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew Dean had it to because he began fidgeting in his seat

"Lex-"

"Turn around." I pleaded

As we pulled back into the parking lot, I gasped in horror. Sam's apartment had flames spewing from the windows and slowly growing larger

"Sam!" I yelled as I went to open the door, but Dean stopped me

"Lex, stay here." He said

"What?! NO! Sam's in there! Dean, you can't ask me th-"

"Alexa Elizabeth Winchester, you stay down here or so help me god I will kill you myself." I froze on the spot when he used my full name and nodded quickly. I knew why he was freaking out so badly. One because it was how mom had died, and two, because Sammy was in there and he couldn't have all three of us in danger.

"Okay. Okay."

I watched in horror as my oldest brother ran inside the burning apartment and didn't see anything for what seemed like days. I was pacing the grass, biting all my nails off, and almost pulled all my hair out, before I saw the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life. Dean and Sam were running down the sidewalk

"Oh thank god. Oh god! Thank you. Thank you." I cried as I ran up to them both and hugged them both as tightly as I could

Once the firefighters had talked to Sam and Dean had filled me in on what had happened to Jess, the three of us walked over to the car so that Sam could put his bags in the trunk. I had been holding his hand since he came back downstairs with Sam. I wasn't taking any chances of him being in danger again. Alone.

Sam threw his bag into the trunk and spoke

"We got work to do." He growled and slammed the trunk closed


	3. Chapter 3

We had been sitting in the car for god only knows how long, and since Sam was now back on the band wagon, I had to move to the backseat, which Dean knew I was _very _upset about. He knew how much I hated it back here, and how sick it made me half of the time

"How ya doing back there peanut?" Dean asked for the millionth time in the last hour

"Ask me that one more time and my foot will be so far up your-"

"Hey! Language!" he cut in before I could finish

"Dean." I rolled my eyes, "What is with you and Sam and what language I use? I mean, have you seen the two of you? I don't think you can go one conversation without swearing. It's bound to rub off on me, considering you've been swearing around me since practically birth." I laughed

"That's not true!" Dean argued

"Dean. My first word was shit." I giggled as I leaned in between the two front seats

He was quiet for a little before he spoke again,

"You know I tri-"

"Dean. Hey!" I cut him off, noticing Sam fidgeting around in his seat and his face contorting in pain, "I think Sammy's having a nightmare."

As he looked over at Sam, I could tell he saw it too, but before he could shake our brother awake, Sam jolted up

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered immediately, before turning to look out the window. I quietly continued to sit forward and between the seats, and rested my chin on the seat

"Another nightmare?" I asked softly and all he did was clear his throat

"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean suddenly asked

"WHAT?!" I screamed

Dean _**never**_ let anyone else drive the impala. Never. And considering he had just finished teaching me how to drive and I had just gotten my license, I was pretty ticked off, "You have got to be kidding me."

"Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that. And if you should let anyone drive, it should be Lex."

"Thank you." I smiled.

Sam and mine's relationship was still pretty rocky, and we haven't really done much talking since he's been back, but I really didn't want to push him. We had spent at least a week and a half back at Stanford, to try and find _anything_ that could lead us to what may have caused that fire. But there was nothing. At all. Sam had been cold, distant, since then, but I mean who could blame him? He had just lost the love of his life. He had the right to be sad.

"Just thought you might want to. Never mind." Dean groaned and turned back to face the road

"Look, man, you're worried about me." I smiled softly. Dean was always worried about us, "I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay." Sam said simply

"I don't really think okay is the right word choice." I said

"Well I didn't ask you, did I?" he spat and I sank back in my seat, with tears pooling in my eyes

"All right, where are we?" he asked, completely disregarding his outburst, but I could see, out of the corner of my eye, Dean glance at my in the rear view mirror. Undoubtedly checking on me and silently telling me he was sorry for Sam's behavior.

"We are just outside of Grand Junction."

All of sudden, Sam through his map down on his lap and turned to face Dean,

"You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."

I rolled my eyes. "_Here we go." _I thought

"Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica—" Dean said quickly

"We gotta find Dad first." He sighed

"Dad disappearing—"

"He didn't disappear. He… he didn't. " I cut in, not being able to think of my dad as missing

"And this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence." Dean finished, completely ignoring my comment. That seems to be happening often since Sam's return, "Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."

"It's weird, man. These coordinates he left us."

"Blackwater Ridge." I spoke

"What about it?"

"There's nothing there. It's just woods. Why is he send us to the middle of nowhere?" Sam asked aloud

"Probably to piss us off. He knows how much I hate the woods. They scare the crap out of me." I groaned as I laid my head down on the back seat and quickly fell asleep.

The next thing I knew, Dean was shaking me awake and telling me to get out of the car

"Where are we?" I asked, seeing the old, run down, wooden building in front of us

"Ranger Station." Sam replied, "Come on." He smiled. So Dean had clearly talked to him while I was asleep because there he was, being nice again.

Once we got inside, it looked just like any other ranger's station. There were maps all over the walls, photos of nature and animals, and a bunch of pamphlets, just hanging around

"It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place." Sam read aloud from a pamphlet

"Dean, come here." I waved him over

"Yoo! Ha, he's massive." He smiled down to me. "Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear."

"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure." He smiled

"Imagine the amount of food this thing needs to survive? Haha, finally someone who could out eat Dean!" I laughed

"Yeah, well, it depends on the day." He grumbled

"Dude, he's a bear. There's no way you could eat more."

"You folks aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" Ranger Wilkinson, at least that's what his badge read, asked suddenly

"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper.

"Recycle, man." Dean smirked

I automatically shoved my face into my hands. I always had to pick up one of these two boys messes. It was ridiculous.

"Bull." Wilkinson growled, "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"

"Yeah. Yes. Sorry about those two. They're my incompetent older brothers." I smiled sweetly as I walked up in front of the ranger, "I'm Zoe. Haley called us and asked if we could come by and ya know, help." I was treading on thin ice here. I didn't even know who this girl was, let alone what her issue was

"Well I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?"

"Right." I sighed, thankful that my lie had pulled through

"You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine." The ranger ordered

"We will. Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?" Dean laughed lightly. I always hated when he did this because I knew that sooner or later, he would mess up and either Sam or I would have to fix it, but by then, people were on to us.

"That is putting it mildly."

"Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brother's return date." Dean asked and I went to stand next to Sam as he went back with the Ranger

"Smooth… Zoe." Sam smiled

"Don't look at me like that. I needed a cover, and Zoe was the first thing that came to mind. Hey, I saved your asses." I pouted

It was quiet for a minute before he spoke again,

"Lex, I'm sorry about earlier. In the car. I've just been – It's just been…"

"I know Sammy. You don't have to apologize." I smiled up at his giant frame and wrapped my arms around his waist, "It's alright."

"Okay you two, sap fest is over. Let's get this show on the road!" Dean said as we quickly left the station

"What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?"

"Ew, stop. Honestly? I don't even want to think about either of you in the sack." I shivered

"What do you mean? " Dean smirked

"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?" Sam asked as we stopped at the impala. Sam on one side and Dean and I on the other

"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?"

"It's a good idea Sam." I shrugged, but looked over at Dean, who was just staring at Sam

"What?" he asked

"Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?" it was true. Dean always shot first and asked after. Sam was always the opposite. Me? Well I didn't get a gun until I was 15, so I really wasn't a part of that

"Since now." He shrugged softly

"Really?"

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"Just knock on the door!" Sam argued

"No. you do it."

"Seriously guys? You can't knock on the door? Just hit the damn bell." I groaned as I hit the doorbell, "Now was that so hard?"

"You must be Haley Collins." Dean said suddenly, and I turned around to see a brown haired girl at the door. I looked behind her and saw a young boy, around my age, sitting at what seemed to be a kitchen table. He was cute. Had dark hair and had a dark hoodie on. I smiled softly at him when I noticed him staring at me.

"I'm Dean, this is Sam, and that, down there, is Alexa." Dean smiled. Okay, so maybe I was significantly shorter than them. So what if I was only 5'2. I was short, but I should sure as hell pack a punch. "We're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service, and she's our intern. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy."

I could see that she was a little hesitant, so I wasn't surprised when she asked for I.D's

Dean pulled out the fake ID that we had made before we made it into town, with the name 'Samuel Cole' and held it up against the screen.

"Come on in."

"Thanks." Dean smiled sweetly

"That yours?" I heard Haley ask, but I wasn't paying any attention because the boy sitting at the table spoke up

"Hey."

"Hi." I smiled, "I'm Al-"

"Alexa. I heard." He smirked, "Ben."

"Well, hi Ben." I laughed

"So you guys are helping find my brother?" he asked softly

"That's our goal, yeah." I smiled as Sam, Dean, and Haley walked into the room, having a conversation of their own. I saw Dean stare at me, and I knew exactly what he was thinking, and that I was gonna get some sort of talk later on for talking to a boy. This is what I get for being the youngest and being a girl with two protective older brothers. Sigh.

"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?"

"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard anything in over three days now." She replied sadly

"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception." I suggested, not wanting to rule out the fact that he could be fine just yet

"He's got a satellite phone, too." Haley spoke

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean smiled

"He wouldn't do that." Ben said suddenly, and Dean shot him a look, definitely because Ben and I's interaction earlier

"Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other." Haley spoke softly, and I could hear the fear in her voice. And I couldn't blame her, I was in the exact situation as her. Two brothers. No parents around.

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked suddenly

"Yeah." She nodded

"That's Tommy." Haley smiled before clicking again and opened a shot video clip

"Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow." Tommy smiled before ending the video entry. Before the video totally ended, I saw what looked like a black figure flicking past the screen, behind Tommy, but chose to keep that to myself so I wouldn't worry Haley or Ben too much

"Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."

"Then maybe I'll see you there." Haley said as we headed for the door, "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

"I think I know how you feel." Dean said softly, and it was true. We all knew exactly how she felt

"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to us? Just so we can look them over again if we need to for any reason." I smiled sweetly

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As usual, we pulled into some small bar on the side of the road before heading back to our hotel for the night. Of course I couldn't order anything for myself, but that didn't mean I didn't take some of Dean's drinks. Of course, without him knowing

"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found."

"Any before that?" Dean asked as I opened Dad's journal

"Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." I snorted, "Yeah, grizzly bear my ass."

"And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936." Sam stated as he looked it up on his laptop

"Hey, open that video Haley sent us. I wanna check something." I asked as I scooted closer to him

"Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork." He said as he opened the video

"Okay. Watch." I said as the video started playing, "There! Did you see it?" I asked, pointing excitedly at the screen

"See what?" Dean asked the same time said, "Damn."

I shoved Sam's hands away from the computer and slowed the video down to frame by frame, and that's when Dean saw it

"Do it again."

I clicked the frames again before speaking, "That's three frames guys."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" Dean smirked

"That's a fraction of a second man. Whatever that thing is, it can move."

"Told you something weird was going on." Dean laughed as he slapped Sam on the shoulder

"Finally, something good." I smirked before getting off my chair and picking up the darts

"I got one more thing." Sam said as he picked up a paper and handed it to Dean, "In 'fifty-nine, one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."

"Seriously? Someone survived this thing?" I asked as I threw down the darts and moved back over next to my brothers, "Is there a name?"

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SHAW HOUSEINT. HOUSE – NIGHT

An OLD MAN, MR. SHAW, talks to SAM and DEAN while leading them inside his house. SHAW has a cigarette in his mouth.

We had pulled into Mr. Shaw's house about 15 minutes ago and we were talking to him about the 'grizzly 'attack that he had experienced as a child

"Look, ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—"

"Grizzly? That's really what attacked them?" I asked, suspicous

"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean asked after Shaw nodded at my question

"What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" he asked again when Shaw didn't answer

Again, there was no answer,

"If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it." I was getting frustrated that this guy wasn't going to tell us the truth

"I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." We gave him puzzled looks, "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."

"Try us. Trust me, you'd be surprised what we believe." I smiled as I sat down across from him

"Mr. Shaw, what did you see?" Sam asked as he also sat down

"Nothing." And here we go again I thought, but he surprised me and spoke again, "It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard."

"And it came at night?" I asked softly and he nodded

"Got inside your tent?"

Shaw shook his head violently, and his eyes glazed over, kind of like he was interally reliving the horrific event,

"It got inside our cabin." Holy Hell, "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming."

My hand covered my mouth, just picturing what it must have been like for this poor man. To hear his parents being murdered right beside him

"It killed them?" Sam asked

"Dragged them off into the night." He nodded before shaking his head, "Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since."

It was quiet for a moment before Shaw lifted his hand up to move his shirt off of his chest, revealing a massive scar of three long claw marks,

"Did leave me this, though." He paused, "There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon."

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Once we left Mr. Shaw's place, we had tried to figure out what it could be that was living in these woods, but there like a million different things it could be. We had gotten to our car and started loading our materials into a duffle, to prepare for our outing tomorrow

"We cannot let that Haley girl go out there." Sam said in a serious tone

"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?" Dean smirked

"Yeah." Sam suddenly said

"What? Ha! You wanna tell her that her brother probably got eaten by some mythical creature that is actually real? Good luck with that." I laughed

"Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend."

"It's not just Haley we have to worry about tomorrow you know." I said softly, not knowing how they were going to react

"Yeah I know. We got her ass to worry about on top of the three of us." Dean snorted

"I-uh- I meant Ben." I whispered

"Ohhh Ben. Your little crush." Dean snickered and Sam laughed

"I don't like him!" I yelled

"Mhm." Dean said as we moved inside our room

"I don't! We talked for like five seconds . I was just saying how we have to watch out for him too." I defended

"Okay, well I put you in charge of that." Dean smiled, but abruptly stopped in his tracks, "Actually, scratch that. I don't want you near him. Hormonal teenagers. Alone. In the woods. Not gonna happen." He shook his head

"Dean, are you frea-"

"100%" he smirked

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We pulled up to the clearing the next day, duffels packed, guns loaded, and dad's journal in tow. Haley, Ben, and some guy were standing in front of their car, just staring at us as we walked out of the Impala.

"You guys got room for three more?" Dean smiled

"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley questioned

"Well we did tell you yesterday that we were coming out here today. Shouldn't be that big of a shock." I spat

"Who are these guys?" the older man asked

"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue."

"You're rangers?" the old man asked

"That's right. And an intern."

I raised my hand and snickered

"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley asked Dean

"Oh, hunny." I giggled, "He doesn't do shorts." I laughed again, just picturing him in a pair of shorts

"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt." The other man yelled towards us as we walked past the others

"I thought it was hilarious." I said simply, "Him in shorts." I snorted and Dean just rolled his eyes

"Believe me; we know how dangerous it can be. We just wanna help them find their brother, that's all." Dean assured

We had been hiking for about an hour, Roy, found out that was his name, was in the lead, then Dean Haley and Sam, leaving me and Ben taking up the rear

"So you do a lot of hiking?" he asked me

"Uh, actually no. Don't tell anyone, but I kind of hate the woods." I giggled

"And you're a ranger?" he questioned

"No, I'm just an intern. I usually just stay in the station and help around there. I needed to be in internship for school, and I don't know, it seemed interesting, haha."

"Well then you should be having a blast right about now." Ben laughed

"Oh yeah. You know, I woke up this morning and alli really wanted was to get bugs and dirt in my hair."

"Well at least you look good doing it." He smirked

I could feel my cheeks getting red, so I looked forward, to where I saw Roy pull back Dean

"Whatcha doing there Roy?" Dean questioned

Roy grabbed a stick and poked around the ground for a minute, but a nsapping sound rang through the air and he pulled up a bear trap Dean almost stepped in

"You should watch where you're stepping. Ranger."

"You're partner guy doesn't seem to know what he's doing." Ben whispered

"Yeah, he's kind of an idiot." I giggled

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"This is it. Blackwater Ridge." Roy said, stopping in the middle of nothing

"What coordinates are we at?"

"Thirty-five and minus one-eleven." Roy answered

"There's nothing here. Like, at all." I groaned as I walked up to Sam and Dean

"You hear that?" Dean asked

"Yeah. Not even crickets."

"I'm gonna go take a look around." Roy said suddenly

"I wouldn't do that buddy." I suggested

"Yeah, you shouldn't go off by yourself." Sam finished

"That's sweet. Don't worry about me."

"That guys is really starting to piss me off." I growled as Roy pushed passed us and Dean rubbed my shoulder

"Don't mind him. Someone just shoved a stick up his ass." He smiled

"More like a freaking tree trunk."

"All right, everybody stays together. Let's go."

But before we could even start moving, Roy yelled for Haley to find him, so we all started running towards where his voice was coming from

"Oh my God." Haley gasped

The tents that were in the small clearing were town up into shreds and the supplies that the people had were scattered all over the forest floor

"Looks like a grizzly." Roy stated

"Tommy?" Haley screamed, "Tommy!"

"Sam. Shut her up. Whatever did this is probably still out there." I growled at my youngest, older brother

"Tommy!" she screamed again

"Shh-hh-hh!" Sam yelled as he ran over towards her

"Why?"

"Something might still be out there."

"Sam! Lex!" Dean shouted and we both ran over to our brother

"The bodies were dragged from the campsite. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." He spoke softly, making sure no one else could hear

"Guys, one thing's for sure, this no skinwalker or black dog." I said, worridly

We both walked back over to the campsite and each went our separate ways, Dean with Haley, Sam and Roy wandered around, and I saw down on a log next to Ben. Before we could get a conversation out, someone started screaming in the woods

"Help! Help!"

We all got out of the campsite so fast and followed Roy to where we thought the screaming was coming from, "Help! Somebody!" they screamed again

"Nobody's here." I whispered, mainly to myself

"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley asked aloud

Then it hit me. Whatever it was, it was drawing us out. It wanted us away from the campsite for whatever reason. And Sam seemed to realize the same thing because he ordered everyone to get back to the camp, but as soon as we got back, everything was gone. Packs, supplies, walkies, everything

Back at the campsite, all the supplies are missing.

"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone." Roy complained

"What the hell is going on?"

"It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help." I spoke

"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear." Roy corrected

"No. This isn't a pe-" I was cut off by Sam grabbing my arm and dragging me to Dean, in private "What the hell?"

"You can't just go around telling people these things. We need to see Dad's journal." Sam said as Dean handed him the journal

"All right, check that out." He said, as he turned the book over to me and Dean

"Oh come on Sam." I laughed," You're smarter than that."

"She's right bro. Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west."

"Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice." Everything he was pointing out were all the telltale signs for a wendigo, but it was crazy to have one out here. I've never heard of that

"Great." Dean sighed as he pulled out his pistol, "Well then this is useless."

"We gotta get these people out of here guys." I said as we walked back to the group

"All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten...more complicated." Sam stated simply

"What?" Haley laughed, "No."

"Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it."

"It's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now."

"He's right guys. This isn't just some bear. We have to go." I agreed

"One, you're talking nonsense." He pointed to Sam with his knife, then turned to me, "Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders." He said deeply, moving closer to me

"Hey! Relax." Dean yelled when Roy got a little too close to me

"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you."

"You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."

I knew things were going to start going downhill now that this asshole brought up mom.

"Yeah? It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."

"You know you're crazy, right?" Roy laughed

"You know what? I'm sick and tired of your bull. You think you're such a great hunter? Huh? Well, tell me this, you ever hunt a wen-" I was cut off by Dean pulling closer to him

"Chill out." I growled/whispered to me

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I knew my temper could get pretty bad when someone pushed me just a little too far, and this was no exception.

"Sorry." I whispered

"Stop. Stop it. Everybody just stop. Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him." Haley spoke

Everyone was silent for what seemed like hours before Dean finally spoke up

"It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."

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We had built a campfire, and Dean drew some protection symbols in the dirt around the campsite while Haley poked at the fire.

"One more time, that's—

"Anasazi symbols. It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them." We had filled them in on what was really out there, so now we didn't have to worry about the secrets, but good ole Roy still wasn't on board, and he chuckled

"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean sighed as he got up and walked over to sit in front of Sam

"Yeah, or a douche." I grumbled. I was sitting on a small log, drawing pictures in the dirt with a stick I had found. Dean had gone over to sit next to Sam, and, not that I would ever tell them, but I could hear every word that they were saying

"You wanna tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours?" Dean laughed

"Dean—"

"No, you're not fine. You're like a powder keg, man, it's not like you. I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?" I laughed quietly, making sure they couldn't hear, because it was true. This wasn't like Sam.

"Dad's not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"

"Yeah, you're probably right. Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek." Dean sighed, and I knew he was telling the truth, and that scared me. Where the hell was Dad?

"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road. Go find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?"

"This is why." Dean said as he went around and kneeled in front of Sam, holding Dad's journal, "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession—everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business."

"That makes no sense." Sam shook his head, "Why doesn't he just—call us? Why doesn't he—tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?"

"I dunno. But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it."

"Dean...no. I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about." I sighed, hating the fact that Sam was still in so much pain over Jess

"Okay, all right, Sam, we'll find them, I promise. Listen to me. You've gotta prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man."

It was quiet for a minute before Sam spoke again,

"How do you do it? How does Dad do it?"

"Well for one, them." Dean sighed, and I knew he was talking about Haley and Ben, "I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable." It was quiet again, "I'll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can." Dean chuckled and Sam laughed

"Last is that girl sitting over there. She deserves the world man. And we can't give that to her. But what we can give her is us staying alive, and making sure nothing ever happens to her. And we can't give that to her if we're unfocused, impatient." Dean said softly

I could see Sam nod in the corner of my eye, even though my eyes were blurry with unshed tears. I had never heard Dean talk about me like that before. Sure, we always knew we loved each other, but no one ever, well besides me, really said it out loud. So hearing what he had said, it was just nice.

The moment was cut short when the sound of a branch snapping echoed through the clearing

"Help me! Please!" someone, presumably the wendigo, screamed

Dean and Sam both stood up, hands on their guns, when it screamed again, "Help!"

"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put."

"Inside the magic circle?" Roy yelled

"For god's sake! Shut the Hell up Roy!" I screamed

"Help! Help me!" it screamed again, then a terrifying growl roared through the woods

"Okay, that's no grizzly." Roy concluded

"It's okay. You'll be all right, I promise." I heard Haley whisper to Ben, and I looked over and gave him a reassuring smile

"It's here." Sam said lowly, when all of a sudden, Roy whips out his gun and shoots the damn thing

"I hit it!" he yelled

"Way to go dude. Now it's gonna eat you!" I yelled as he ran to see what he hit

"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean growled after him, "Don't move." He ordered to me, Ben, and Haley as him and Sam ran into the woods after Roy

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Dean and Sam had come running back into the campsite hours later, without Roy, and immediately, I knew that the wendigo had gotten him somehow. I was now sitting with Ben and we were talking about the little things, our favorite books, colors, animals. I was basically just trying to get his mind off of the situation we were in, when Sam walked over to all of us

"Hey. So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch." He said

"Well, hell, you know I'm in." Dean smirked

"Of course you are." I laughed as I rolled my eyes

"'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'." Sam described as he showed that page of Dad's journal to Haley and Ben

"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a living person." I explained

"Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter." Dean specified

"How's a man turn into one of those things?" Haley asked

"Well, it's always the same. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp."

"Like the Donner Party." Ben finally spoke up

"Yeah, kinda." I smiled, happy he understood

"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality."

"They believe that if you eat enough of it, overtime, you become this less than human…thing. That you're always hungry." I told them

"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" I knew this question was coming up, and I knew they wouldn't like the answer

"You're not gonna like it." Dean said, as if reading my thoughts

"Tell us."

"More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there."

"And then how do we stop it?" she asked, needing to know how to get her brother

"That's the fun part." I chuckled

"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically—" Dean said, holing up a torch, "We gotta torch the sucker."

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We had ventured out on our hike earlier that morning and we had been waling for about an hour when we found the blood trails on the trees

"Dean."

Dean ran up to Sam, and of course I followed

"What is it?"

"You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow."

"It was a trap." I realized

Then, growling surrounded us and the trees started to rustle, signaling that someone, or rather _something _was in there and moving around

"Haley, are you bleeding?" I asked when I noticed the blood on her shoulder

"No. Why?" she replied, looking at me funny as I walked up to her

"You just have blo-" before I could finish was I was saying, she moved us out of the way as soon as Roy's body fell exactly where we stood

"You both okay? You good?" he asked, examining us both for any injuries

"Fine." We both answered

"His neck's broke." Dean said as he stood up and walked away from Roy. As soon as Haley and I stood up, the growling returned, and it seemed closer

"Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" Dean yelled as we all started running through the woods

Dean, Haley, and I were in front, while Sam and Ben were right behind us

I don't know what happened, but I looked behind us and noticed that Ben and Sam were stopped and Ben was on the ground, but when I turned back around, we were face to face with the wendigo itself.

As if on cue, Haley and I both let out blood curdling screams before everything went black

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Dean really needed to learn to close the windows while driving because the backseat got so damn cold sometimes. And god was I sore from that last hunt. Speaking of which, when did we finish that wendigo case? Did we even finish it? And if I was in the backseat of the impala, where was the wind? Something wasn't right. That's when everything started coming back to me. The wendigo. Roy. Being hit over the head with what I think was a rock. It had taken us. Me, Haley and Dean. Dean! Where was he?

"D'n" I tried to say his name, tried to call out to him, but that's all that came out

"Lex? Hey baby girl. Come on. Wake up for me." I could hear his voice but it sounded so distant

"D'n?"

"Yeah, it's me peanut. Come on. Open your eyes." He pleaded

I did as I was told and opened my eyes, and I could finally see where we were. We were in some rock cellar and hanging from the ceiling. Haley was talking to someone else, I'm guessing it was Tommy, and Dean was attempting to face me

"Where's S'mmy?" I mumbled

"He's with Ben. The stupid son of bitch didn't get them. Don't worry Lex, we're gonna get out of here." He promised, and I knew not to argue with him. I knew, somehow, either he or Sam would get us out. They always did It seemed as if all at once, we fell back in unconsciousness and the next thing we heard was Sam and Ben calling our names

"Dean! Lexi!" Sam yelled

"Haley, wake up!" I heard Ben yell, but I couldn't make my eyes open or speak at all

"Dean! Lex!" he yelled again, "Hey, you okay?" he asked, so Dean must have woken up

"Yeah." He sighed, "Check on Lex."

"Hey lexi. Wake up for me. Come on."

Finally, consciousness came back to me and I lifted my head up and stared, blurry, into Sam's eyes

"Hey peanut. How ya doing?"

"Head hurts." I whined

"I know. Hey, we're gonna get you down now, okay? Hold still." He smiled as he cut the ropes off my hands and gently holding my against his chest as he lowered me to the floor beside Dean

"You all right?" Dean asked as he patted my knee

"Fine. You?"

"Peachy."

"You sure you guys are alright?" Sam asked

"Yeah. Yep. Where is he?" Dean asked quickly

"He's gone for now."

"Cut him down!" I heard Haley yell now that Tommy was awake

"We're gonna get you home." Haley said we Sam cut him down from the ceiling

"Check it out." I said when I found all of our stolen supplies over in the corner

"Flare guns. Those'll work." Sam grinned and Dean laughed

We all started to make our way out of the small room, Tommy limping in back with Haley and Ben, Sam, Dean and I in front with our flares, when the growling started again

"Looks like someone's home for supper." Dean chuckled

"We'll never outrun it." Haley said worriedly

Dean looked back at us, and I knew exactly what he was thinking

"No. Dean! No!"

"You thinking what I'm thinking?' he asked Sam, completely ignoring me

"Yeah, I think so."

"No! Dean stop!" I yelled

"All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Go on a suicide mission is what." I growled as he ran down to the other end of the tunnel

"Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I taste good."

"All right, come on! Hurry!" Sam rushed as soon as Dean was out of range

"I don't like this Sam. What if something goes wrong?"

"It's Dean we're talking about. He'll be fine. I promise." Sam said as we rand won the tunnel. And to make matters worse, the growling started again and it was gaining on us. Quickly

"Get him outta here. And take Alexa." Sam ordered

"Sam! NO!" I screamed. I would not lose both my brothers in one day

"Go! Go! Go!" he yelled

"Come on, Haley!" Ben screamed as he pulled on my arm

"No. Go! I'm staying with him! GO!" I screamed as Haley and Ben ran down along the mine tunnel

"You're stupid Lex."

"Takes one to know one bro." I smiled as we both held up our flare guns, Sam standing somewhat in front of me.

"Come on. Come on." Sam mumbled as the wendigo is right in front of us. We both shoot, but conveniently, for the first time in lord knows how long, we both miss

"Shit!" we both yell as we started running down the tunnel

"Sam! Alexa!" Haley screamed as we soon caught up

"Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry." I yelled, but just our luck, we ran into a dead end

"Sam, it's right there! What do we do?!" I asked, knowing this wasn't gonna end well

"Get behind me." He said, taking a protective stance in front of me and the others. Soon we saw the wendigo walking towards us, but it was taking it's time. Stalking its prey. But before it could attack, Dean appeared behind it

"Hey!" he yelled and it turned around just as Dean shot it in the stomach, "Not bad, huh?" he smirked as the wendigo finished burning on the ground

"shut up." I laughed and Sam grinned as we walked out of the mining tunnel

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We stood and watched as the paramedics loaded Tommy into the ambulance and Ben and Sam finish his interview with the police officers.

"You sure you're okay?" Ben asked when we came over from the police officer

"I'm fine Ben. Really. Thank you though."

"Think you'll ever be around here again?" he asked, sheepishly and I knew what he was implying

"Probably not, but if I ever am, I promise the first thing I'll do is come find you." I smiled

"Sounds good to me." He said before leaning in a giving me a peck on the cheek and I blushed a deep red as another officer walked over to us

"You riding with your brother?" he asked Ben

"Yeah." He said before turning to leave with the officer, but not without looking back and giving me a small smile

Sam and I walk over to the impala and sit on the Impala's hood with Dean.

"Man, I hate camping."

"You and me bother brotha." I laugh

"You know we're gonna find Dad, right?" Dean said suddenly

"Yeah, I know. But in the meantime? I'm driving." He grinned as Dean tossed him the keys

"Hey Lex?" Dean said after we had gotten in the car and started driving down the highway

"Yeah?"

"Don't think we didn't catch your little moment with Ben back there." I could hear the smile in his tone and I could also hear Sam's fits of laughter from the driver's side

"Awesome." I groaned and the deep red blush made its way back to my cheeks. This was gonna be a long drive.


	4. Dead in the Water

_**Hey guys! So I know I haven't updated in SUCH A LONG TIME, so that's why I decided to update twice in the past 24 hours. Just let me know what you guys think and if I should change anything or things you wanna see for upcoming episodes/chapters! Thanks for reading! Xox ~Sarah**_

You know what would be absolutely amazing? A nice meal that was home cooked and one that we could all sit around a nice dining room table together and enjoy. That's really all I want. But nope. I'm stuck with greasy fast food or whatever restaurant we are stopped at. But hey, at least we were all sitting together. Dean was sitting in front of a mostly empty plate and was circling obits in some random newspaper

"Can I get you anything else?" our waitress, Wendy, asked suddenly, and Dean, being his usual flirty self, just grinned at the women with his goofy grin and her cheeks turned pink

"Just the check." I cut in, making her come back down to Earth and turn back around, "God. You'd think they've never seen a man before, the way they drool." I complained as came back from the bathroom and sat back down

"You know, we are allowed to have fun once in a while." Dean said, pointing to Wendy in her short shorts, "That's fun."

Sam just stared at him, clearly not finding this funny, and Dean just sighed and handed him the newspaper

"Here, take a look at this, I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago."

Sam raised an eyebrow, "A funeral?"

"Yeah, it's weird, they buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever." Dean shrugged

"Not whatever. It makes them feel better. That they can actually say goodbye and put their loved one to peace." I said, looking between the two as they gave me funny looks, "What? That's what I'd want you two to do for me if my body was ever lost or something." I shrugged

"Don't say that. You aren't going anywhere Lex." Dean said quickly

"I'm just saying." I replied

"Well don't." he spat

"But closure? What closure? People don't just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them." Sam cut in, seeing the tension between Dean and I

"Something you want to say to me?" he questioned Sam

"The trail for Dad. It's getting colder every day." I sighed. Here we go again. The third time this week. I have recently decided to stay out of these conversations when they occur. Pretend to not be there. It works best.

"Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know. Something. Anything."

"You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think I wanna find Dad as much as you do?" Dean growled

"Yeah, I know you do, it's just—"

"We're –" he pointed to himself and me, "The ones that have been with him every single day for the past two years, while you've been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?" Sam just rolled his eyes as Wendy walked by, momentarily distracting Dean

"All right, Lake Manitoc." He sighed when Dean didn't pay attention, "Hey!"

"Huh?" he shook his head

"How far?" Sam sighed and Dean grinned. Such children

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We had been driving for hours now, and we had yet to pass anything substantial. First it was a clothesline with white sheets, then a bridge with some old guy fishing off of it, then we finally made it to the '_**Welcome to Lake Manitoc WI'**_ and after what seemed like an eternity, we pulled up to the Carlton house

"Will Carlton?" Dean asked

"Yeah, that's right."

"I'm Agent Ford. This is Agent Hamill. And our intern, Miss Greene." He responded, "We're with the US Wildlife Service." He said as we all held up our ID's

Will insisted that we went and sat outside by the water, so we followed him down and sat on the benches on the dock

"She was about a hundred yards out." He said softly, "That's where she got dragged down."

"And you're sure she didn't just drown?" Dean asked, not caring about the man's feelings

"Yeah. She was a varsity swimmer." Will said sadly, "She practically grew up in that lake. She was as safe out there as in her own bathtub."

"Please ignore his rudeness. He doesn't have the best people skills. He's been told to work on them." I shot him a glare, "So there was no splashing? No signs of distress?"

"No, that's what I'm telling you."

"Did you see any shadows in the water? Maybe some dark shape breach the surface?" Sam asked him

"No. Again, she was really far out there."

"You ever see any strange tracks by the shoreline?" Dean questioned, trying to get anything out of this guy

"No, never. Why? Why, what do you think's out there?"

"We'll let you know as soon as we do." I smiled softly as Dean started back towards the car.

"What about your father?" Sam suddenly asked, "Can we talk to him?"

Will looked back towards his father Bill, and sighed

"Look, if you don't mind, I mean...he didn't see anything and he's kind of been through a lot."

"Don't worry about it. You both have been through a horrible incident and suffered a great loss. We're very sorry." I smiled and patter his arm before we turned and left

"What the hell was that? Dean questioned

"What? You mean my people skills? Sorry some of us are actually good at talking to people and supporting them." I rolled my eyes

"You didn't have to touch him."

"Jesus Dean. Get over it. I'm 17. I can touch people. And it was his freaking arm for crying out loud. Grow up."

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"Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" Jake Devins, the local sheriff, asked Sam. We had gotten to the sheriff's office about 15 minutes ago, and were having trouble getting anything out of him

"You sure it's accidental? Will Carlton saw something grab his sister." Sam stated

"Like what?" he asked as we walked back into his office, "Here, sit, please. There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake."

Sam sat down, but Dean motioned for me to take the other chair, so I sat down while he stood behind me, his hands on the back of the chair

"There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person, unless it was the Loch Ness Monster."

"Yeah." I snorted and Jake laughed

"Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still—" Jake said as he sat down, "We dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep, just to be sure, and there was nothing down there."

"That's weird, though, I mean, that's, that's the third missing body this year." Dean pointed out as if he knew this already and hadn't just looked it up

"I know." Jake sighed, "These are people from my town. These are people I care about."

"We understand that, and we are very sorry."

Jake smiled sweetly and cleared his throat, "Anyway... All this...it won't be a problem much longer."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the dam, of course."

"Of course, the dam. It's, uh, it sprung a leak." Dean sighed, clearly not knowing anything about the dam

Jake nodded,

"It's falling apart, and the feds won't give us the grant to repair it, so they've opened the spillway. In another six months, there won't be much of a lake. There won't be much of a town, either. But as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that."

"Exactly." Dean nodded just as a young women walked into the office

"Sorry, am I interrupting?" she asked

'_Oh no, you know, we're just sitting in here doing absolutely freaking nothing. Of course you are dipshit.' _I thought as Sam stood up and they both walked up to the lady

"I can come back later." She said '_Good.'_

"Gentlemen, this is my daughter." Jake smiled

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Dean." He smiled and shook her hand. Great, now I'm gonna have to hear him talking about her for god knows how long

"Andrea Barr. Hi."

"Hi." Dean said again. Jeez, he's such a freak

"They're from the Wildlife Service. About the lake." Jake informed his daughter

"Oh." All of a sudden, a small boy ran into the office and right into Andrea's leg

"Oh, hey there. What's your name?" Dean asked. Oh lord, he was pretending to be into kids for this chick. And to be honest, she wasn't even that good looking, plus, she had a kid.

"His name is Lucas." The sheriff spoke Andrea moved her son into the other room and gave him a box of crayons and some paper to color with before walking back over to her father

"Is he okay?" Sam asked

"My grandson's been through a lot. We all have." He says as we walk towards the office doors, "Well, if there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."

"Thanks. You know, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced motel?" Dean asked

"Lakefront Motel. Go around the corner. It's about two blocks south." Andrea responded as she walked out of the office as well

"Two—would you mind showing us?"

Oh Lord have mercy

"You want me to walk you two blocks?" she laughed

"Not if it's any trouble." He smiled

"This has got to stop Sammy. It's getting out of hand." I told Sam as we walked down the street to the motel, just as Dean said, "Kids are the best, huh?." I sighed, "Like really? He hates kids."

"It's Dean kiddo. You know how he is with girls."

"Yeah. Annoying." I groaned as we walked up to the Lakefront Motel

"There it is. Like I said, two blocks." Andrea sighed

"Thanks. Sorry about that. He can't read, so maps are kinda hard for him." I smiled sweetly at the women

"Oh I'm sorry. But it must be hard, with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line."

At that, I doubled over in fits of laughter as Sam patted Dean's shoulder

"'Kids are the best'? You don't even like kids."

"I love kids." Dean argued

"Name three children that you even know."

"Don't you dare even think of saying my name or so help me god!" I yelled as I saw Dean thinking for at least one kid that he knew.

Sam just laughed and walked off and I quickly followed as Dean yelled after us

"I'm thinking!"

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We had gotten our usual size motel room, two beds, small kitchen thing, and a bathroom. All we needed

"Who's my bunk buddy tonight?" I smiled at my two brothers

"Not me. I did it for the last two nights." Dean called as he walked into the bathroom

"Sammy?" I turned and looked at him

"Sure kiddo." He smiled

We had all sorted out our clothes and where were sleeping, and now Dean was sitting on his bed, I was reading a magazine, and Sam was on his laptop, as usual

"So there's the three drowning victims this year."

"Any before that?" Dean asked, not sounding too interested

"Uh, yeah."

"Six more spread out over the past thirty-five years. Those bodies were never recovered either. If there is something out there, it's picking up its pace."

Dean tossed the remote down on the bed and looked over at Sam

"So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?" he chuckled

"This whole lake monster theory, it, it's kinda weirding me out." I confessed

"Why?" Dean asked as he moved over next to Sam

"Yeah me too." He said, "Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing."

"Whatever it is out there, no one's living to talk about it."

"Wait, Barr, Christopher Barr. Where have I heard that name before?"

"Barr was the last name of that lady you were trying to hit on earlier." I reminded him. It was weird, I always had an amazing memory. Like more so than usual kids. Even growing up, I could remember almost anything.

"Yeah, thanks for that by the way. '_He can't read.'_ Such an ass." He growled as he threw a pair of his socks at me

"Eww! God are these clean or dirty?" I yelled as I threw them onto his bed  
"Who knows." He smirked

"Christopher Barr was the victim in May." Sam spoke up

"Oh. Christopher Barr was Andrea's husband, Lucas's father." Sam said as he started to read some article, "Apparently he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. Two hours before the kid got rescued."

"Maybe we have an eyewitness after all." I said, not taking my eyes off the magazine

"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over." Dean sighed before walking back over to his bed and flopping down

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PARK

I was sitting beside the slide in the park while Dean and Sam were talking with Andrea. I saw Lucas sitting at a picnic table, drawing, but he looked so peaceful, I decided to leave him alone

"If you're not going to go down the slide, you gotta move. My sister wants to go down." I heard from behind me

I turned around and saw a little boy, maybe about seven or eight standing next to and holding hands with a little girl, who could have been more than three. She was absolutely gorgeous. Her brown hair was up in pigtails and she had on a little purple dress with matching shoes and pretty little stud earrings.

"Lady." The boy said again, moving to stand somewhat in front of his sister. Like he saw me staring at her and didn't like it one bit

"Sorry." I shook my head and stood up, "Here you go."

The little boy walked up to the slide and sat his sister down before standing back up himself,

"Okay Lizzy, stay here. When I get to the bottom, slide down okay? Remember, don't do until I'm there to catch you." He smiled before jumping down the ladder and running to the bottom and stand there, ready to catch the little girl

"Okay, ready kiddo?" she nodded, excitedly, "Go!" he yelled and she pushed herself down the slide, giggling the whole way down

I smiled, watching the interaction at the bottom of the slide, and thought of my childhood. I don't remember the last time I was at a park. Or the last time I was able to just go out with one of my brothers and just have fun. Not worry about ghosts, or wendigos or anything evil. But it was also nice to see the two having fun, and knowing that me and my family were making their home a better, safer place for these two beautiful children. I walked over and sat down on one of the open swings and just looked around at the park.

"Are you waiting for someone?" a small voice came from beside me

I looked over to see a little girl, maybe about ten, sitting on the swing next to me

"I'm Lola." She smiled

"No. I'm just here with my brothers. See those two over there?" I pointed over to where my brothers were and she nodded

"Those are your brothers?" she asked

"Mhm." I smiled, "What about you? Where's your family?"

There was a pause before she spoke,

"At home. They don't like to play with me. My brother is sixteen, and he only likes to be with his friends. So I come here every day and after school to play with other kids." She sighed

I felt bad for the girl. I knew exactly how she felt. While I was growing up, there was a phase were no one would ever want to be around me because all I asked to do was play, and they didn't have any time. "Don't worry. I was the same way. But trust me, it gets better." I smiled at her before noticing a little boy who was across the playground, near Dean and Lucas, who was staring at the little girl I was talking to, "But I think you have a special little friend over there." I said, nodding to the boy

"Who? Nathan?" she asked, scrunching up her nose

"Yeah. He keeps looking over here. I think he likes you." I smiled sweetly at her

"I don't think so. He never talks to me in school."

"But does he smile at you? Or maybe give you a pencil every once in a while?"

"Yeah." She said, the beginnings of a smile appearing on her lips

"Alright then. That's a good sign. That means he knows you're there and he notices you." I said as I stood up, "Come on." I said, holding out my hand

"Where are we going?"

"We are going to talk to Nathan." I stated as we started walking towards the boy

"Hi. Are you Nathan?" I asked and he nodded shyly, "Have you met my friend Lola?"

"Yeah. I – I go to school with her." He said, looking down at the wood chips and kicking a few

"Well, I have to get going, and I would hate for her to have to play by herself. Do you think you'd want to hangout with her for me?" I asked him, not entirely sure on what he would say

He looked up and over at Lola,

"Do you like cars?" he asked and I smiled

"A little. My borther has a bunch of toy racecars and stuff." She smiled and I let go of her hand

"Alright. I'm gonna go. Have fun, okay?" I bent down and told her, but before I could leave, she threw her arms around my shoulders

"Thank you." She whispered

I smiled and turned around and walked over to Dean, catching the end of his conversation with Lucas

"That's my dad. That's my mom. That's my geek brother, my dweeb of a sister, and that's me." He paused, "All right, so I'm a sucky artist. I'll see you around, Lucas." He said

"Nice drawing." I smiled as I walked up to him

"Hey, no judging. He wouldn't talk, so I had to do the talking." He replied and didn't say anything about me with the little kids, which I was somewhat thankful for.

"Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me. Not since his dad's accident." Andrea said as we walked back up to her and Sam

"Yeah, we heard. I'm sorry." Dean sighed

"What are the doctors saying?" Sam asked

"Probably a type of post-traumatic stress?" I guess before she could answer

"That's right." She agreed

"That can't be easy. For either of you." Sam said

"We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot. It's just...when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw..."

"Kids are strong. You'd be surprised what they can deal with." Dean said suddenly. It was odd, I never pictured him for knowing much about kids. But then again, he did practically raise both Sam and I

"You know, he used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth. Now he just sits there. Drawing those pictures, playing with those army men. I just wish—" she was cut short when Lucas came walking up to our small group, "Hey sweetie."

But Lucas had no intention of talking to her. He only had eyes for Dean. He walked right up to Dean and handed him a freshly drawn picture

"Thanks. Thanks, Lucas."

I recognized that picture. It was a drawing of a house. But not any house. The Carlton house.

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Dean and I sat on our beds, watching T.V when Sam threw open the doors and stomped inside

"So, I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked

"I just drove past the Carlton house." He replied, sitting down on the end of Dean's bed, "There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead."

"Lemme guess. He drowned?" I guessed

"Yep. In the sink." Sam deadpanned

"The sink? How the hell does someone drown in the sink?" I asked, getting off of the bed and walking towards the bathroom

"So you're right, this isn't a creature. We're dealing with something else."

"Yeah, but what?"

"Oh I know! A ghost. It's totally possessing the water." I smiled before walking into the bathroom to get ready for a shower

"I don't know. Water wraith, maybe?" I heard Dean say before I turned on the water and slammed the door shut. I loved showers, just for the simple fact that I actually got time to myself and I could relax. There weren't many times that we got to ourselves, so any chance I got, I took. I had been in the shower for about five minutes when there was a knock at the door

"What? Can't you wait to pee?" I yelled out

"Lex, Sam and I are gonna go to The Carlton's real quick. You okay here for like an hour or so?" Dean yelled through the door

"Yeah. I'll probably just sleep or something!"

"Alright. Remember to salt the doors and windows!" he yelled before I heard footsteps and the door slam

I finished my shower, got dressed in a pair of jeans and one of Dean's old ACDC shirts before checking the salt lines, laying down on the bed, and turning the T.V on. Nothing decent was ever one these stupid motel T.V's so I ended up falling sleep for about an hour or so when I felt a hand on my shoulder. On instinct, I balled my fist and connected it with the intruders jaw

"OW! Jesus Lex."

"Oh shit! Sorry Dean." I laughed when I sat up and saw who I had hit, "But you should know not to sneak up on me like that." I said, still laughing

"Haha. So funny. Damn you can pack a punch." He said, massaging his jaw

"Well I learned from the best." I said, trying to get back on his good side

"Oh shut it. Come on. Get up. Sam and I think we found something. He's in the car

I grabbed my combat boots from next to the door and threw them on before racing out behind Dean to the car

" So Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died."

"Yeah. That's kinda normal in kids who have gone through post-traumatic incidents. One thing that they used to do usually gets heighted."

"Exactly. There are cases—going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies."

"Nerds." Dean coughed, "Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is tapping into it somehow? I mean, it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please."

"All right, we got another house to find."

"The only problem is there's about a thousand yellow two-stories in this county alone."

"Lemme see the drawing." Sam spoke up, grabbing the picture from Dean's hands, "Here. See this church? I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here." he said

"Oh, College Boy thinks he's so smart." Dean said in some weird accent

"Was that supposed to be Boston? Cause you got it all wrong dude." I laughed

"You know, um..." Sam started, "What you said about Mom...You never told me that before." Whatever they were talking obviously happened while I was back at the motel, and as much as I wanted to ask about it, it was about mom, and I knew Dean wouldn't want to talk about it again, so I just listened in on the conversation

"It's no big deal." Dean shrugged, "Oh God, we're not gonna have to hug or anything, are we?" he groaned when Sam said nothing. And I guess that was end of that

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSP NSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

We pulled up next to a small white church that look almost identical to the one in Lucas's drawing, and then saw the yellow house that was across the street from the street

"Well, that's the house." I said, pointing to it

We all got out of the car and walked up to the front door

"We're sorry to bother you, ma'am—" Dean spoke when an older women opened the door, "—but does a little boy live here, by chance? He might wear a blue ball cap, has a red bicycle."

You could see the color drain from the women's face and I could tell that she knew something about this little boy

"No sir. Not for a very long time. Peter's been gone for thirty-five years now."

Oh, so the boy had died. Then what the hell was a little boy doing drawing his picture? We walked into the women's house and I immediately noticed the photos of the little boy on her side table

"The police never—I never had any idea what happened. He just disappeared." She spoke sadly

I saw Sam point over to the toy soldiers that were surrounding the small photo and I thought of Lucas. He always had those around. Did he know who did this to him?

"Losing him—you know, it's...it's worse than dying."

Dean glanced at Sam and he nodded knowingly. I clearly missed a lot while I was sleep

"Did he disappear from here? I mean, from this house?" I asked when no one spoke

"He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, and he never showed up." Mrs. Sweeney said

Dean walked over and took a photo of two boys off of a mirror. One was the boy in the red cap, and the other was another little boy, who looked strangely familiar

DEAN picks a picture off the mirror. There are two boys in the picture, one PETER with a bicycle. DEAN reads from the back of the picture.

"Peter Sweeney and Billy Carlton, nineteen seventy." Ahh, so it was Carlton. This was slowly making its way into a case that we could solve

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSP NSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

We had piled back into the impala, knowing where we had to go next. This puzzle was slowly putting itself together

"Okay, this little boy Peter Sweeney vanishes, and this is all connected to Bill Carlton somehow." Sam said as we sped down the road

"Yeah, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?"

"And Bill, the people he loves, they're all getting punished for some reason." I spoke, leaning between the two from the back

"So what if Bill did something to Peter?"

"What if Bill killed him?" Sam suggested, and it was a logically theory

"Yeah. Peter's spirit would be furious. It'd want revenge. On anyone Bill was close to. It's possible." I said as we pulled up to the Carlton house

"Mr. Carlton?" Sam yelled as he got out of the car, and we immediately heard an engine roar and we raced to the back of the house and towards the lake.

"Hey, check it out." Dean shouted. I looked up and noticed Bill sitting on a boat, and it was heading out to the middle of the lake

"Mr. Carlton! You need to come back!" I shouted as we all ran down towards the dock

"Come out of the water! Turn the boat around!" Dean yelled, but he just ignored us. Then, all of a sudden, the water rose up and flipped Bill's boat, and when the water set, the boat and Bill were nowhere to be found.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked, shocked

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSP NSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

INT. POLICE STATION – DAY

We walked into the police station with Sheriff Devins and noticed Andrea sitting in a chair next to Lucas

"Sam, Dean, Alexa." She noted as she stood up, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"So now you're on a first-name basis. What are you doing here?" Jake smield

"I brought you dinner."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, I don't really have the time." Jake sighed as he walked over to get some papers

"I heard about Bill Carlton. Is it true? Is something going on with the lake?"

"Right now we don't know what the truth is. But I think it might be better if you and Lucas went on home." Jake promised his worried looking daughter just as Lucas jumped up and grabbed Dean's arm

"Lucas, hey, what is it?"

No reply

"Lucas."

No reply

"Lucas." Andrea tried

Again, nothing.

"Lucas, it's okay. It's okay. Hey, Lucas, it's okay. It's okay." Dean said soothingly as Andrea pulled him away from Dean and outside, but Lucas kept staring at my brother on his way out. It was kind of creepy to watch

Jake threw his jacket down on a chair, and walked into his office. The three of us followed and just stood there instead of sitting.

"Okay, just so I'm clear, you see...something attack Bill's boat, sending Bill—who is a very good swimmer, by the way—into the drink, and you never see him again?"

We all glanced at each other and nodded,

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Dean said

"And I'm supposed to believe this, even though I've already sonar-swept that entire lake? And what you're describing is impossible? And you're not really Wildlife Service?"

That instantly surprised us all, and we said nothing

"That's right, I checked. Department's never heard of you two."

I gulped,

"I can explain that. You see-"

"Enough. Please. The only reason you're breathing free air is one of Bill's neighbors saw him steering out that boat just before you did. So, we have a couple of options here. I can arrest you for impersonating government officials and hold you as material witnesses to Bill Carlton's disappearance. Or, we can chalk this all up to a bad day, you get into your car, you put this town in your rearview mirror, and you don't ever darken my doorstep again."

"Door number two sounds good." Sam said quickly

"That's the one I'd pick." The sheriff nodded

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSP NSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

Stupid traffic lights. Stupid sheriff. Stupid ghost filled town. Ugh, everything was stupid. We were so close to finding out what was really going on in that damn down before the sheriff gave us the ultimatum . We were now sitting at a stop light that had been red for the last eight hundred years and next to a sign that read '_I-43 North to Milwaukee'_

"Green" Sam said suddenly

"What?"

"Light's green." He repeated at the same time as Dean turned right

"Uh, the interstate's the other way."

"He knows." I smiled

"But Dean, this job, I think it's over." Sam said, not wanting to go back and get caught by Jake

"I'm not so sure."

"If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter's spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest."

"Yeah but, what if we take off and this ghost isn't done? You know, what if we've missed something? What if more people get hurt?" I added, wanting to finish this case now that we almost finished it

"But why would you think that?" Sam asked

"Because Lucas was really scared." Dean Finally answered

"That's what this is about?" Sam sighed

It was true, Dean had gotten really attached to this kid, and it was weird because Dean was usually telling us not to get attached to people

"I just don't want to leave this town until I know the kid's okay."

"Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?"

I giggled and Dean glared at Sam,

"Shut up."

We pulled up to the Barr's house soon after that and walked up to the front door

"Are you sure about this? It's pretty late, man."

As soon as Dean rang the doorbell, Lucas opened the door and looked desperately afraid.

"Lucas? Lucas!" Dean yelled after the kid as he ran back inside the house. The three of us took off after him and into the Barr house. We to where Lucas is standing and there is water is pouring out from under the bathroom door and down the stairs. He started pounding on the bathroom door again and before Dean pushes him out of the way for Sam to kick in the door. Lucas grabbed onto Dean and Sam and I ran into the bathroom tried to pull Andrea out of the tub. As soon as Sam finally gets her out of the tub, I grab a towel from the floor and cover her up, not wanting anyone to see her when she was this venerable.

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSP NSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

Dawn broke and Sam, Andrea, and I sat in the living room.

"Can you tell me?" Sam asked

"No." she whispered, "It doesn't make any sense." She started crying, "I'm going crazy."

"No, you're not." I said, walking over to her and putting my arms around her shoulders "Tell us what happened. Everything."

"I heard...I thought I heard...there was this voice."

"What did it say?"

"It said...it said 'come play with me'." She said, shuddering before sobbing again, "What's happening?"

Dean plopped down a scrapbook in front of Andrea. It had an old photo of a Boyscout troop 37 and a bunch of boys.

"Do you recognize the kids in these pictures?"

"What? Um, um, no. I mean, except that's my dad right there. He must have been about twelve in these pictures." She said, not understanding where this was going

Dean looked over at Sam and I and we immediately understood

"Chris Barr's drowning. The connection wasn't to Bill Carlton. It must have been to the sheriff."

"Bill and the sheriff—they were both involved with Peter." Sam continued

"What about Chris? My dad—what are you talking about?"

"Lucas?" Dean asked, noticing Lucas was standing, looking out the window, "What is it?"

Without warning, Lucas just opened the door and walked outside and we all followed

"Lucas, honey?"

"You and Lucas get back to the house and stay there, okay?" Dean said, speaking to Andrea and Lucas only

Sam and I ran to the car quickly and grabbed a couple shoves before starting to dig in the ground where Lucas was staring. Not five minutes later, we hit something, something red.

"Peter's bike." I whispered

"Who are you?" I heard in front of me, and I looked up, seeing the sheriff, pointing a gun right in my face

"Put the gun down, Jake." Sam said with a shake in his voice

Me, on the hand, couldn't say anything because that damn gun was still pointed at me. That was one of my biggest fears. Being shot and killed. Which was odd for being a hunter. But we immediately dropped the shovels

"How did you know that was there?" Jake asked loudly

"What happened? You and Bill killed Peter, drowned him in the lake and then buried the bike? You can't bury the truth, Jake. Nothing stays buried." Dean said, getting angry at Jake. Which pissed me off because he was pissing off the guy that was pointing a gun at me

"I – I don't know what the hell you're talking about." Jake stuttered

"You and Bill killed Peter Sweeney thirty-five years ago. That's what the hell I'm talking about." Dean growled and took a step towards Jake and in front of me

"Dad!" Andrea yelled and Jake put down his gun

"And now you got one seriously pissed-off spirit." Dean added

"It's gonna take Andrea, Lucas, everyone you love. It's gonna drown them. And it's gonna drag their bodies God knows where, so you can feel the same pain Peter's mom felt. And then, after that, it's gonna take you, and it's not gonna stop until it does." Sam spit out

"Yeah, and how do you know that?"

"Because that's exactly what it did to Bill Carlton." I stated matter of factly

"Listen to yourselves, all of you. You're insane." Jake chuckled

"I don't really give a rat's ass what you think of us. But if we're gonna bring down this spirit, we need to find the remains, salt them, and burn them into dust. Now tell me you buried Peter somewhere. Tell me you didn't just let him go in the lake." Dean groaned

"Dad, is any of this true?" Andrea asked, obviously shocked

"No. Don't listen to them. They're liars and they're dangerous." Jake snorted

"Something tried to drown your daughter in the bathtub Jake. The damn bathtub! And you're son in law, Chris, died on that lake. Take responsibility!" I yelled

"Tell me you—you didn't kill anyone." Andrea pleaded and Jake looked away

"Oh my God."

"Billy and I were at the lake. Peter was the smallest one. We always bullied him, but this time, it got rough. We were holding his head under the water. We didn't mean to. But we held him under too long and he drowned. We let the body go, and it sank."

"Shit" I cursed

"Oh, Andrea, we were kids. We were so scared. It was a mistake. But, Andrea, to say that I have anything to do with these drowning's, with Chris, because of some ghost? It's not rational." Jake tried to reason

"All right, listen to me, all of you. We need to get you away from this lake, as far as we can, right now." Dean ordered as Andrea just stared at her father. I have no idea what made me move my gaze, but I did, and I spotted Lucas going down towards the lake and I took off without any warning

"Lucas!" I yelled as I got onto the dock that Lucas was leaning over and I could hear the rest of them not far behind us

Come play with me." An eerie voice echoed through the dock and I froze, seeing the little boy swim up and pull Lucas into the water

"No!" I yelled as he disappeared below the surface

"ALEXA! DON'T YOU DARE!" Dean screamed as he closed in on us, but I didn't pay any attention to him. I had to try and save this little boy

"ALEXA!" Sam and Dean both yelled before I dove in. The water was so muggy and dirty that I literally couldn't see a thing. I squinted my eyes to try and get a glimpse at anything, but it was too difficult. There must have been a pipe or something under the water because I could feel my bootlace get stuck, wrapped around something, and I couldn't get it loose.

'_Perfect. Just I need. To die under water while some poor kid is drowning." _I thought to myself

I could start seeing black spots dancing around my vision, and that's when I knew it was bad. That this could have been a potentially fatal mistake "_Sam. Dean."_ Were the last things I thought before everything went black

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"Sam?" Dean yelled as he popped his head back up from under the water

Sam just shook his head

"Damnit!" Dean screamed. He knew they were running out of time. Running out of time for Lucas, but also for Alexa.

"Lucas, where are you?" Andrea cried from the dock

Jake all of a sudden took off his jacket and walked into the lake

"Peter, if you can hear me...please, Peter, I'm sorry. I'm so—I'm so sorry."

"Daddy, no!" Andrea screamed

"Peter. Lucas—he's, he's just a little boy. And the girl. Their just children. Please, it's not their fault, it's mine. Please take me."

At that time, both Dean and Sam come up for air and Dean notices Jake

"Jake, no!" he yelled just as Peter surfaced

"Just let it be over!" Jake yelled as he got dragged down into the water

"Daddy! Daddy! No!" Andrea cried

"Sammy… Lex-" Dean breathed heavily

"I know.: Sam replied before they both dove under again

And for the last time, Sam came out of the water, and slowly shook his head, before pulling an unconscious Alexa with him

"No!" Andrea screamed, but before she could even get a tear out, Dean popped out of the water with Lucas in his arms

"You got her?" Dean yelled to his brother as he laid Lucas down on the dock with his mom

"Yeah."

"Oh thank god. Is she breathing?"

No reply

"Sam! Is she breathing?!" Dean screamed as he scurried over to his siblings

"No."

"Oh god. No. No no. No. Alexa. You don't do this." Dean stammered as he started compressions on his sister while Sam blew into her mouth.

Andrea and Lucas stood beside them, just watching the scene before them unfold like a bad joke. This couldn't be happening. She was just sitting with Sam and Dean in their hotel room, joking around. And now she wasn't breathing

"Come on Lexi. Come on." Sam whispered

"You don't get to check out. Not now. Not ever. Let's go baby girl!" Dean screamed one last time before starting compressions again

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSP NSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

Dean and Sam walked out of the motel with their duffels in hand, sad looks plastered on their faces

"Look, we're not gonna save everybody." Sam sighed

"I know." Dean whispered, still in shock

"Come on guys. No more sulking. We did good." I smiled as I through my bad into the trunk. It was true, we couldn't save everyone. We had lost the Carlton's, and Jake, but my amazing, God sent brothers, had managed to save Lucas and myself. I was out cold, no breathing, nothing, for a grand totally of about five minutes before they got me back to the land of the living. And when I did wake up, well let me just tell you, I _**never**_ want to see that look on either of my brother's faces again

"Sam, Dean, Lex." Andrea spoke up as she walked over to us

"Hey." Dean smiled

"We're glad we caught you. We just, um, we made you lunch for the road." She smiled, "Lucas insisted on making the sandwiches himself." I looked down and saw him holding a platter of food for us to take

"Can I give it to them now?" he asked, eagerly

"Of course."

He handed the plate of food to Dean before turning and looking at me,

"Thank you Alexa. You really are super women." He smiled at me before wrapping his little arms around my waist. I have no idea where that comment came from, but it made my heart melt

"Come on, Lucas, let's load this into the car." Dean smiled

"How you holding up?" Sam asked once the two boys left

"It's just gonna take a long time to sort through everything, you know?"

"Andrea, I'm sorry." Sam sighed

"You guys saved my son." She shook her head, "I can't ask for more than that. Dad loved me. He loved Lucas. No matter what he did, I just have to hold on to that."

"You take care of your mom, okay?" I heard Dean tell Lucas as they moved back up front towards Sam, Andrea, and I

"Like you take care of Sam Lexi?" Dean looked up at me quickly and I could tell my cheeks were turning pink, but I also had a huge smile plastered on mine and Sam faces

"Yeah. Just like that." He replied before he sent Lucas off to his mom, who came over and kissed Dean

"Thank you." She whispered

Dean just stood there for a minute before scratching his head, and moving around to the driver's side of the car

"Both of you, move your ass. We're gonna run out of daylight before we hit the road." He said as he slipped into the impala

We waved goodbye to Andrea and Lucas as we pulled out of the small town.

"Don't ever do that again." Sam said suddenly

"Huh?"

"Don't you ever put yourself in danger like that again Lex. You hearin' us?" Dean finished, "I don't ever want to have to do that again." He added softly

"Yeah Dean." I answered, "I'm sorry."

"No you're not." Sam laughed

"You're right. I'm not. I was trying to save that little boy. That's what we do guys. We save people." I explained

"Yes, we save people. But you come first Lex. I know it's awful, but I know Sam agrees, we would rather have you alive then someone that we'll never see again. That's for damn sure."

And just by that comment, I knew none of the little stuff matter. Having a sit down dinner. Going to the park. Having kids my age to play with. None of it mattered. Because I had something that all opf those other kids didn.t I had MY Sammy and Dean.


	5. Phantom Traveler

_**Hello again(: Sorry for the late update, but I just got back from vacation Sunday, so I tried to upload as soon as I could! I am really hoping you guys like the way I'm going so far… even only 4 chapters in lol. So please! Please feel free to give me any pointers or tell me where YOU want me to go with this story(: Thank ya! Xox Sarah**_

"Morning, sunshine." Sam grumbled

This whole 'Sam getting up early' thing was not working well. He always got up at the crack of freaking dawn, and me, being a teenage girl, liked to sleep well into the afternoon

"What time is it?" Dean grumbled from his bed. I looked over and noticed that he had his gun in hand, obviously the one that he kept under his pillow

"Uh, it's about five forty-five." Sam laughed

"In the freakingmorning?" I growled

"Yep."

"Where does the day go?" Dean asked, sitting up while I was still sprawled out on my bed, "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"Yeah, I grabbed a couple hours."

"Liar. 'Cause I was up at three, and you were watching a George Foreman infomercial." Dean snorted

"Hey, what can I say? It's riveting TV."

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?"

"I don't know, a little while, I guess. It's not a big deal."

"Yeah, it is."

"Look, I appreciate your concern—" I snorted

"Oh, He's not concerned about you. Probably just something for his benefit." I growled into my pillow, "Now will you please just shut the hell up and let me sleep."

"She's right ya know. It's your job to keep my ass alive, so I need you sharp." Dean laughed

It was quiet for a minute before Dean spoke again, "Seriously, are you still having nightmares about Jess?"

That made me sit upright and look over at my youngest older brother, waiting for him to answer the question

"Yeah." Sam sighed, and walked over to the bed I was laying on,"But it's not just her. It's everything. I just forgot, you know? This job. Man, it gets to you."

"You can't let it. You can't bring it home like that." Dean replied

"Yeah, I mean with the shit that we see on a daily basis… You gotta leave it at the door." I said, finally getting up off of the bed, and making my way into the small kitchen to get a donut

"So, what? All this it...never keeps you up at night?" Sam asked as Dean shook his head, "Never? You're never afraid?"

"No, not really." Dean shrugged

Sam got up off of his bed and leaned over, to grab the hunting knife that Dean kept under the pillow, as if to show Dean that he was right.

"That's no fear. That is precaution." He reasoned

"Yeah. I'm kept up some nights." I nodded, leaning on the counter, "But I know there's no point. I mean, none of us would ever let anything happen to the other two, so there's honestly no reason to get afraid. That's just my theory." I shrugged as I walked over to my duffle and pulled out Dean's ringing phone before he had the chance, "Hello?"

"Dean?" A man's voice echoed through the phone

"Uh, no. Who is this?"

"It's uh, it's Jerry." He replied

"Yeah, that's really not narrowing it down any." I rolled my eyes, "Look man, you clearly know Dean, so who the hell are you?" I spat

"Jerry Panowski."

I thought for a minute, glancing at my brothers, who were giving me worried looks, before remembering who this guy was

"Oh, right, yeah! Up in Kittanning, poltergeist thing, right? How ya doing?" I asked, "It's not back or anything is it?"

"No. No. Thank god, no." he sighed, "But it's something else, and...uh, I think it could be a lot worse."

I paused, letting his words sink in. I don't know what could be much worse. That poltergeist was horrible

"Hey, Jerry, I'm gonna hand you over to Dean. I think you'll wanna talk to him about this instead of me." I said as I held the phone out to Dean, "Jerry. Says something worse is going on around there."

"Jerry? Yeah, hey, it's Dean."

Dean and Jerry had a short conversation as Sam and I packed up our bags to leave the motel, finally ready to leave the wendigo case in our rear view mirror. By the time Dean had gotten off the phone, I had packed his clothes and we were ready to get on the road and now heading to Pennsylvania.

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We made it to Pennsylvania about a day and a half later and we went straight to Jerry's job to try and see what we were dealing with

"Thanks for making the trip so quick." Jerry said as we walked through his department,"I ought to be doing you guys a favor, not the other way around." He smiled, "Dean, Alexa, and your dad really helped me out." He said, facing towards Sam

"Yeah, they told me. It was a poltergeist?"

"Poltergeist? Man, I loved that movie." Some random guy said as we walked past a group of workers

"Right? It was great!" I agreed and gave the guy a high five as we walked past

"Hey, nobody's talking to you. Keep walking." Jerry growled, "Damn right it was a poltergeist, practically tore our house apart. Tell you something, if it wasn't for your sister, Dean, and your dad, I probably wouldn't be alive. Your dad said you were off at college. Is that right?"

"Yeah, I was. I'm—taking some time off." Sam said quietly, and I knew that the topic of school just brought up other bad emotions… especially Jess

"Well, he was real proud of you. I could tell. He talked about you all the time." Jerry smiled

"He did?" the shock was evident in Sam's voice

"Yeah, you bet he did."

"See Sammy. Dad's proud of ya." I smiled and patted his back

"Oh, hey, you know I tried to get a hold of him, but I couldn't. How's he doing, anyway?" Jerry questioned and I tensed. '_Yeah, I'd like to know the same thing Jerry.'_

"He's, um, wrapped up in a job right now." Dean responded quickly

"Well, we're missing the old man, but we get Sam. Even trade, huh?" I smiled and Dean smiled

"Hell ya." I smirked

"No, not by a long shot." Sam grumbled as we finally made our way into Jerry's office

"I got something I want you guys to hear." He said as soon as he shut the door, "I listened to this. And, well, it sounded like it was up your alley." He spoke as he placed a CD into the drive

"Normally I wouldn't have access to this. It's the cockpit voice recorder for United Britannia flight 2485. It was one of ours." He explained as he hit play

**"Mayday! Mayday! Repeat! 2485—immediate instruction...may be experiencing some mechanical failure..."** and just before the tape ended, there was a loud whooshing sound

"Took off from here, crashed about two hundred miles south. Now, they're saying mechanical failure. Cabin depressurized somehow. Nobody knows why. Over a hundred people on board. Only seven got out alive. Pilot was one. His name is Chuck Lambert. He's a good friend of mine. Chuck is, uh...well, he's pretty broken up about it. Like it was his fault.

"You don't think it was?" Sam asked, sounding a little surprised

"No, I don't."

"Jerry, we're probably gonna need passenger manifests, um, a list of survivors." I told him

"All right." He nodded

"And, uh, any way we can take a look at the wreckage?" I knew there was no way we could look at the wreckage. It was government property

"The other stuff is no problem. But the wreckage...fellas, the NTSB has it locked down in an evidence warehouse. No way I've got that kind of clearance."

"No problem." Dean frowned

I knew exactly what they were thinking, and I knew that it was bad idea. Probably one of the most illegal things we've done yet. And I loved it.

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Dean was inside some copy place, making our new badges, while Sam and I stayed outside, leaning against the car

"Honestly, it doesn't take five years to print up new stuff." I groaned, right as Dean walked out of the building, "Ugh. Finally."

"You've been in there forever." Sam agreed

"You can't rush perfection." Dean smirked as he held up our new badges

"Homeland Security?" Sam noted as he took his ID, "That's pretty illegal, even for us."

"Yeah, well, it's something new. You know? People haven't seen it a thousand times." Dean shrugged as we got into the car

"Lemma guess. Intern again?" I groaned, stretching my legs across the backseat

"Trainee." He smirked

"Finally. I get moved up." I laughed

"All right, so, what do you got?" he smiled

"WellLex and I listened to it a couple times while you were in there, and there's definitely EVP on the cockpit voice recorder." Sam responded

"Yeah?"

"Listen."

Sam hit play on the tape recorder, that I edited to only play what the EVP was saying, and held it up so Dean could hear better

**"No survivors!"** the voice screeched

""No survivors"? What's that supposed to mean? There were seven survivors." Dean argued, and it made perfect sense. I mean, if the ghost didn't want any survivors, why were there?

"Got us." I sighed from behind them

"So, what are you thinking? A haunted flight?" Dean asked as we sped down the highway

"Well, There is a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships and stuff, like phantom travelers I guess you could call them." I explained

"Mm-hmm." It was silent in the car for a minute before I spoke again,

"Hey. Do you guys remember flight 401?"

" one that crashed, the airline salvaged some of its parts, put it in other planes." Dean replied

"Yeah, but then the spirit of the pilot and copilot haunted those flights." I explained

"Right."

"Maybe we got a similar deal." Sam agreed

"All right, so, survivors, which one do you want to talk to first?"

"Oh OhOh! Max something or other!" I shouted from the back

"Ow. Quiet down." Dean complained, "Why him?"

"Well, for one, he's from around here. And two, if anyone saw anything weird, he did." Sam answered

"What makes you say that?" Dean questioned

"Well, we spoke to his mother." Sam sighed and I laughed from the backseat. This was gonna be fun

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We pulled into the parking lot and just sat there for a moment, letting Dean take it in

"Seriously?" he deadpanned

"Oh yeah!" I jumped up from the back and slip out of the car, my brothers following, and started walking inside the Riverfront Psychiatric Hospital. The women at the front desk told us that Max would be heading outside soon, so we waited for him to walk down the hallway, when we caught up to him and explained 'who we were.'

"I don't understand. I already spoke with Homeland Security." Max sighed as we walked towards a table with a couple chairs

"Right. Some new information has come up. So if you could just answer a couple questions..." Dean sighed

"Just before the plane went down, did you notice anything...unusual?" Sam asked

"Like what?"

"Strange lights, weird noises, maybe. Voices." I suggested

He shook his head,

"No, nothing."

"Mr. Joffey—"

"Jaffey." I whispered to him right as Max said , "Jaffey."

"Jaffey. You checked yourself in here, right?" he nodded, "Can I ask why?"

"I was a little stressed. I survived a plane crash."

"And that's totally understandable. Right agent." I growled as I stomped on Dean's foot

"Uh huh." He groaned, "And that's what terrified you? That's what you were afraid of?"

"I...I don't want to talk about this anymore." Max stuttered, clearly upset about something more than just being in a plane crash, and it was very suspicious

"See, I think maybe you did see something up there. We need to know what."

"Max, if you saw something, it's **very** important that you let us know. It's a major deal." I tried to soothe him down, but it didn't work very well

"No. No, I was...delusional. Seeing things."

"He was seeing things." Dean snorted

"It's okay. Then just tell us what you thought you saw, please." Sam finally cut in

"There was...this—man." Max finally began, "And, uh, he had these...eyes—these, uh...black eyes. And I saw him—or I thought I saw him..."

Black eyes. That was it. It had to be.

"What?"

"He opened the emergency exit. But that's...that's impossible, right? I mean, I looked it up. There's something like two tons of pressure on that door."

"Yeah." Dean and I mumbled at the same time

"This man, uh, did he seem to appear and disappear rapidly? It would look something like a mirage?" Sam asked quickly

"What are you, nuts?" at that I quickly snorted

"Dude, which one of us is in the metal hospital? Come on." I laughed and he just stared at me

"He was a passenger. He was sitting right in front of me." Max explained

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We needed more information. Anything we could get at this point would be helpful, considering we were going on almost nothing.

"So here we are. George Phelps, seat 20C." Sam sighed as we pulled up to one of the victims house

"Hmm. Man, I don't care how strong you are." Deans started as we all piled out of the impala, "Even yoked up on PCP or something, no way you can open up an emergency door during a flight."

"Not if you're human. " I shrugged

"But maybe this guy George was something else." Sam said, "Some kind of creature, maybe, in human form.

"Does that look like a creature's lair to you?" Dean asked, making Sam and I turn to look at the house. It looked like any other perfectly normal house. Plenty of trees and plants and nice and bright.

"See , but that's what you have to worry about. The normal looking ones." I suggested

We walked up to the Phelps house, and just like Max, the wife bought everything we said and led us into her living room

"This is your late husband?" Sam asked, holding a picture frame

"Yes, that was my George." She sighed

"And you said he was a...dentist?"

"Mm-hm. He was headed to a convention in Denver. Do you know that he was petrified to fly? For him to go like that..."

"Awful." I said quietly and she nodded, "How long were you married?"

"Thirteen years." Mrs. Phelps sighed

"In all that time, did you ever notice anything...strange about him, anything out of the ordinary?" Sam finally started to ask the important questions

"Well...uh, he had acid reflux, if that's what you mean."

'_Not quite.'_ I thought as the three of us glared at each other

"I mean it goes without saying. It just doesn't make any sense." Sam said as we walked down the Phelps's front porch

"A middle-aged dentist with an ulcer is not exactly evil personified. You know what we need to do is get inside that NTSB warehouse, check out the wreckage."

"You do know that we can't just waltz in there dressed like this, right?" I raised my eyebrows. Were these boys really that stupid to think we could look like this and pretend to actually be government officials. Both of my brothers just stared at me, "We have to go shopping." I giggled as I jumped into the impala

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We had been looking around the store for about an hour now, all because my brothers were so freaking picky about what they wanted to look like. Me? I just got a pair of black heels and a black mini dress, which neither one of my brothers approved of, but that didn't stop me. We had finally found Dean and Sam the perfect suits and left the **'MORT'S for style'** shop

"Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers." Dean grumbled, fixing his collar

"No, you don't." Sam spoke, and I snorted,"You look more like a...seventh-grader at his first dance."

"I hate this thing."

"Hey. You want into that warehouse or not?" I asked

"And I _**don't **_like that little outfit you have there Lex." Dean growled and Sam nodded in agreement

"What? A Homeland Security trainee can't be seventeen guys. I have to look older. Plus, I like this dress." I shrugged

"Yeah, we'll I don't Dean said deeply

"Oh shut up grandpa." I snorted and slapped him upside the head as we sped down the road, heading towards the storage warehouse

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We walked into the warehouse and showed them our badges, and surprisingly, they let us right in. The things you can get now a days with lying. What a magical thing. Dean and Sam forced me to stand near the door and watch for anyone coming in or anything looking somewhat suspicious, while they went and walked around the plane. I swear, they always got all the fun jobs. I could only hear their conversations and really didn't have any input in them

"What is that?"

"It's an EMF meter. Reads electromagnetic frequencies."

"Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted-up walkman?"

"'Cause that's what I made it out of. It's homemade." I could hear the smile in Dean's voice because of how proud he was of making something on his own

"Took him like 2 hours one night when he was bored in some dirtier than usual motel room." I grunted from the door and I heard him mumbled something that I couldn't catch at all

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Check out the emergency door handle." Dean said and I could hear Sam scurrying across the floor

"What is this stuff?"

"What is it? Alexa wants to know!" I pleaded, still in the doorway

"I don't know. Some yellow powder. One way to find out though." Sam replied as he picked something up, I'm guessing an evidence bag, and started scraping the yellow stuff into it

I turned back around to look out, and immediately saw two men standing at the front desk with black suits on and holding badges

"Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." I groaned

"Guys! Get the hell out. Suits are here." I said quickly as we made our way back to the rear exit and busted the door open just as the guys in suits walked into the warehouse room. Not two seconds later, the alarm bells started going off and we knew we had to book it out of there. Dean tugged off his jacket and threw it over the barbed wire and Sam jumped over the fence and waited on the other side. Dean kneeled down and held his hands out for me to step on and he carefully lifted me over the fence and down into Sam's waiting arms. In what little school experience I had, I was glad I took up cheerleading, because I could do things now that I wouldn't have been able to do without it.

"Well, these monkey suits do come in handy." Dean sighed as he jumped down off the fence

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"Huh. This stuff is covered in sulfur." Jerry said, confusion laced his voice. We had gotten to Jerry right away after the warehouse incident to check and make sure what the yellow powder was

"You're sure? Like positive." I checked

"Take a look for yourself." He suggested right as a big commotion sounded outside the door, "If you guys will excuse me, I have an idiot to fire." He sighed and left the office, "Hey. Einstein. Yeah, you. What the heck you doing? Put the wrench down—" he screamed at the same guy that I had that mini conversation about poltergeist about yesterday. Poor guy.

"Hmm. You know, there's not too many things that leave behind a sulfuric residue." Dean said after looking into the microscope

"Demons." I smirked. We didn't get many demon cases and they were exciting when we did

"Demonic possession?" Sam agreed

"It would explain how a mortal man would have the strength to open up an emergency hatch." Dean shrugged

"If he was possessed, yeah. It's very possible. Demonic possessions can cause all sorts of things. Inhuman strength included." I spoke

"This goes way beyond floating over a bed or barfing pea soup. I mean it's one thing to possess a person, but to use them to take down an entire airplane?"

"You ever heard of something like this before?" Sam asked, scratching his head

"Never." Dean sighed, "Lex?" he asked, knowing that if I read something like this _**anywhere, ever,**_ I would remember it, but no such luck

"Not even in the books." I sighed

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We had spent hours stuck in this nasty motel room, in complete research mode, with images and articles taped to the walls and thrown across the beds. Sam on his computer, and Dean and I reading articles on the other bed

"So, every religion in every world culture has the concept of demons and demonic possession, right? I mean Christian, Native American, Hindu, you name it."

"Yeah, but none of them describe anything like this." Dean said as soon as Sam finished his sentence

"Well, that's not exactly true." I said softly

"What?" they both asked, turning to look at me

"Well, in Japan, certain demons are behind certain disasters. Like onne can cause earthquakes, another causes disease, stuff like that." I explained, remembering an article I had just finished like an hour ago

"Nerd." Dean fake coughed, "And this one causes plane crashes?" I nodded and he asked, getting up off the bed, "All right, so, what? We have a demon that's evolved with the times and found a way to ratchet up the body count?"

"Yeah. You know, who knows how many planes it's brought down before this one?" Sam answered

"What?" Sam asked when Dean snorted

"I don't know, man. This isn't our normal gig. I mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. This is big. And I wish Dad was here."

"Yeah me too." I sighed just as Dean's phone went off

"Hello?" he answered, "Oh, hey, Jerry.-Wha—Jerry, I'm sorry. What happened?-Where'd this happen?- I'll try to ignore the irony in that.- Nothing. Jerry, hang in there, all right? We'll catch up with you soon." He sighed before hanging up .

"Another crash?" Sam guessed

"Yeah. Let's go."

"Where?"

"Nazareth."he answered

"HAHA. Oh the irony." I giggled as we quickly left the room and made our way to the crash site

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The crash site was just as you'd expect. Lots of smoke, bits and pieces of the plane here and there, oh, and of course the two charred bodies. We were now back at Jerry's office, checking to see if it was sulfur we found at the second crash

"Sulfur?" he nodded, "Well, that's great. All right, that's two plane crashes involving Chuck Lambert. This demon sounds like it was after him." Dean groaned

"With all due respect to Chuck, if that's the case, that would be the good news."

"What's the bad news?"

"Didn't Chuck's plane go down exactly forty minutes into flight?" I cut in, realizing a major factor,"And I'm pretty sure so did flight 2485. At least that's what Sam's laptop said." I smirked

"Forty minutes? What does that mean?" Jerry asked

"It's biblical numerology. You know Noah's ark, it rained for forty days. The number means death." Dean explained

"I went back, and there have been six plane crashes over the last decade that all went down exactly forty minutes in." Sam informed the rest of us

"Were there any survivors?" I wondered aloud

"No. Or not until now, at least, not until flight 2485, for some reason. On the cockpit voice recorder, remember what the EVP Said?"

"'No survivors.'" Dean whispered

"It's going after all the survivors, isn't it? It's trying to finish the job." I finally put the pieces together

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It was late. Not really sure what time it was. I lost track after we stopped to eat and I fell asleep in the back of the impala. I woke up to Sam talking in some weird, robotic voice, to god only knows who

"Really? Well, thank you for taking our survey, And if you do plan to fly, please don't forget your friends at United Britannia Airlines. Thanks." He said as he hung up, "All right. That takes care of Blaine Sanderson and Dennis Holloway. They're not flying anytime soon."

"So our only wildcard is the flight attendant Amanda Walker." Dean asked

"Right. Her sister Karen said her flight leaves Indianapolis at eight pm. It's her first night back on the job."

"Man we have the worst luck." I grumbled from the backseat

"Well hello there sleeping beauty. Had a long enough nap?" Dean chuckled

"As a matter of fact, I did. Thank you." I said sarcastically, gently slapping the back of his head, "So Indianapolis huh?"

"That's is a five-hour drive, guys, even with Dean behind the wheel." Sam sighed, undoubtedly doubting Dean's driving ability

"Ha so funny dude. Call Amanda's cell phone again, see if we can't head her off at the pass." Dean suggested

"I already left her three voice messages. She must have turned her cell phone off."

"Yeah, generally airplanes doesn't allow cell phones to be on during the beginning of the flight." I added in

"God, we're never gonna make it." Sam sighed loudly

"Come on Sammy. We'll make it." I encouraged, leaning forward and rubbing his shoulders as Dean sped up down the road

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I don't think I've ever seen any of us run faster. We all rushed into the airport and quickly stopped at the Departure Board

"Indianapolis. Right there." I pointed to the flight name

"They're boarding in thirty minutes." Sam said quickly

"Okay. We still have some cards to play. We need to find a phone." Dean suggested and pick up the courtesy phone next to the board, "Hi. Gate thirteen.- I'm trying to contact an Amanda Walker. She's a flight attendant on flight, um...flight 4-2-4." Dean spoke into the phone

"Come on." I whispered, knowing they were trying to get a hold of Amanda

"Miss Walker. Hi, this is Dr. James Hetfield from St. Francis Memorial Hospital. We have a Karen Walker here." Dean lied, though it was very believable, "Nothing serious, just a minor car accident, but she was injured, so—" he paused, "-You what? - Uh, well...there must be some mistake." Shit. Something was wrong. She didn't believe him, "Guilty as charged. - He's really sorry. " Dean rolled his eyes and Sam and I laughed quietly, "Yes, but...he really needs to see you tonight, so—Don't be like that. Come on. The guy's a mess. Really. It's pathetic.- Oh, yeah. - No, no. Wait, Amanda. Amanda!" Dean growled as he shoved the phone back on its hook and shook his head

"Damn it! So close."

"Okay. Plan A obviously didn't work. Time for Plan B." I said

"She's right man. We're getting on that plane." Sam agreed

"Whoa, whoa, now just hold on a second." Dean's eyes bugged out of his head. I knew it was because of his fear of flying, but I didn't know if Sam knew or not, so I kept my mouth shut

"Dean, that plane is leaving with over a hundred passengers on board, and if we're right, that plane is gonna crash."

"I know."

"Okay. So we're getting on the plane, we need to find that demon and exorcise it. I'll get the tickets. You get whatever you can out of the trunk. Whatever that will make it through the security. Meet me back here in five minutes." Sam argued, "Are you okay?"

"No, not really."

"What? What's wrong?"

"Well, I kind of have this problem with, uh..." Dean made a hand gesture to the whole airport and kind of rolled his eyes

"Flying?"

"It's never really been an issue until now."

"You're joking, right?"

"Do I look like I'm joking? Why do you think I drive everywhere, Sam?"

"It's fine, all right. Me and Sam will go." I suggested

"What?" Dean practically yelled

"Dean, it really isn't a big deal. We'll do this one on our own." I shook my head

"What are you, nuts? You heard Sam. That plane's gonna crash. No way I'm letting you two go on alone."

"Dean, we can do it together, or we can do this one by ourselves. I'm not seeing a third option, here." Sam said, getting a little nervous about missing the flight

"Come on! Really? Man..." Dean sighed

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The lady was telling the passengers to do something with their bags as we took our seats. Dean was sitting on the outermost seat, me in the middle, and Sam on the other side of me. Sam was doing just fine, but Dean… He was another story. He was currently reading the safety card like it was the holy bible and the last thing he would ever see.

"Just try to relax." Sam said, leaning over me

"Just try to shut up."

"You both need to shut up. Just sit back and be quiet." I turned to Dean, "Hum something."

He looked at me, puzzled,

"Huh?"

"Hum something. Like a song, or a tv show theme song or whatever. Anything. It'll take your focus off the flight and calm you down." The plane took off right then and Dean jumped, causing me to grab his arm and do what he would do for me. Calm him down. I rubbed his arm lightly and I could hear him start to hum some Metallica song

"You're humming Metallica?"

"It calms him down. Shut up Sam." I told him

"Look, man, I get you're nervous, all right? But you got to stay focused."

"Okay." Dean nodded

"I mean, we got thirty-two minutes and counting to track this thing down, or whoever it's possessing, anyway, and perform a full-on exorcism."

"Yeah, on a crowded plane. That's gonna be easy." Dean rolled his eyes

"Just take it one step at a time, all right? Now, who is it possessing?" I asked calmly to my two brothers

"It's usually gonna be somebody with some sort of weakness, you know, a chink in the armor that the demon can worm through. Somebody with an addiction or some sort of emotional distress." Dean answered first. It always amazed me how anything about a hunt could calm him down

"Well, this is Amanda's first flight after the crash. If I were her, I'd be pretty messed up."

"Mm-hm." Dean turned to the flight attendant that was walking past, "Excuse me. Are you Amanda?"

"No, I'm not." She replied sadly

"Oh, my mistake." I turned to look behind us and saw a women in the small back room

"Hey. I think that's her." Both of them turned to look at the women

"All right, I'll go talk to her, and, uh, I'll get a read on her mental state." Dean suggested

"What if she's already possessed?"

"There's ways to test that." He said, getting his holy water flask, that looked like the Virgin Mary, out of his bag, "I brought holy water."  
"You can't use that." I whispered, just as Sam snatched it from Dean's hands and shoved it into his hoodie

"I think we can go more subtle. If she's possessed, she'll flinch at the name of God." Sam said

"Oh. Nice." Dean nodded before standing up, getting ready to walk back to Amanda, when Dean stopped him

"Hey."

"What?"

"Say it in Latin."

"I know." Dean rolled his eyes, but this time, I stopped him

"Oh, wait!. Hey!"

"What?!"

"Uh, in Latin, it's 'Christo'."

"Ugh, guys, I know! I'm not an idiot!"

"Okay. Sorry sorry." I said, holding my hands up in defense

"So you really think we'll be able to pull this one off Sammy?" I asked as soon as Dean was out of hearing range

"I really hope so Lex. I really hope so." He sighed

"Yeah me too. 'Cause ya know, dying in a plane crash isn't really how I planned to go out." I said, looking at my watch. Not much time left

"We're not gonna die Lex. I wouldn't let ya." He smiled

"Thanks for the encouragement, but you really would have a say in that. Not unless you have secret powers you wanna share with the rest of us that will save us if this thing goes down." I smirked

"Yeah. You wish." He snorted

It was quiet between the two of us for a minute before I spoke again

"Don't tell Dean this, okay?" he looked down at me,"I'm absolutely terrified of flying." I whispered, biting my lip

"What?" he asked, stunned

"Mhm. Scares the living shit out of me." I nodded

"But you're doing so well with it. And even calming him down."

"Exactly. He's flipping out already, he doesn't need to worry about someone else too. He needs to calm down right now. So that's what I'm doing." I shrugged

"Lex, you know how mad he'd be if he found out."

"Well that's why he isn't going to find out. Right?" he nodded again, reluctantly, "Besides, I'm just doing what he's been doing for me since day one. Taking care of each other. He des-" I stopped when Dean slid into his seat

"All right, well, she's got to be the most well-adjusted person on the planet."

I cleared my throat and turned to face him more

"You said 'Christo'?" I asked

"Yeah."

"And?"

"There's no demon in her. There's no demon getting in her."

I sighed. Damn it. That meant more work for us and only a small window of opportunity to do it

"So, if it's on the plane, it can be anyone. Anywhere." Sam sighed

All of a sudden the plane shook and I gripped Sam's arm so tight I thought it might pop off

"You're okay." He whispered in my ear

"Come on! That can't be normal!" Dean shouted

"Hey, hey, it's just a little turbulence."

"Sam, this plane is going to crash, okay? So quit treating me like I'm friggin' four."

"You need to calm down."

"Well, I'm sorry I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"Dude, stow the touchy-feely, self-help yoga crap, it's not helping."

I was so tired of hearing them banter, especially because I was literally in the middle of the two of them. I had to end it

"You both need to shut the fuck up. First damn lesson guys. If you're panicked, you're wide open to demonic possession, so you-" I pointed to Dean, "need to calm yourself down. Right now. And you." I pointed at Sam, "Stop yelling and just sit in your damn chair and try to find a way to catch this stupid thing."

No one spoke for a minute

"Thank you." I said smugly

"Okay, I found an exorcism in here that I think is gonna work. The RitualeRomanum."

"So do we have to do?" I asked

"It's two parts. The first part expels the demon from the victim's body. It makes it manifest, which actually makes it more powerful."

"More powerful?"

"Yeah."

"Perfect. Just what we need." I mumbled

"How?"

"Well, it doesn't need to possess someone anymore. It can just wreak havoc on its own."

"Oh. And why is that a good thing?"

"Well, because the second part sends the bastard back to hell once and for all."

"Well let's not get ahead of ourselves guys. First things first, we have to find it." I said

We split up to try and find anything. Sam went off to the front of the plane, Dean was walking up and down the aisle with his EMF, trying to get readings, and me? I just stood in the back of the plane. I couldn't do anything. I was terrified. Although I told the boys I was looking around back here. All of a sudden, Amanda came walking into the backroom with me

"Oh. Hi. Are you alright Miss?" she asked

"Ih yeah. Just needed a little breather."

"Not much of a flier?"

"No. Not really." I chuckled as Sam and Dean walked into the room

"Oh, hi. Flight's not too bumpy for you, I hope."

"Actually, that's kind of what we need to talk to you about." I had no idea what was going on, and then Sam closed the curtain

"Um, okay. What can I do for you?"

"All right, this is gonna sound nuts, but we just don't have time for the whole 'the truth is out there' speech right now." Dean sighed

"All right, look, we know you were on flight 2485."

"Guys! What the hell are you doing?" I practically shouted as Amanda's smile immediately disappeared

"Who are you guys?"

"Now, we've spoken to some of the other survivors. We know something brought down that plane and it wasn't a mechanical failure."

"Guys. What the hell are you doing?" I asked again, but yet again, got ignored

"We need your help because we need to stop it from happening again. ."

"I'm sorry, I—I'm very busy. I have to go back—" Amanda tried to push past Sam and Dean, but he stopped her

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? But listen to me, uh...The pilot in 2485, Chuck Lambert. He's dead."

"Wait. What? What, Chuck is dead?"

"He died in a plane crash. Now, that's two plane crashes in two months. That doesn't strike you as strange?"

"Look, there was something wrong with 2485." Sam said when she said nothing, "Now maybe you sensed it, maybe you didn't. But there's something wrong with this flight, too."

"Amanda, you have to believe us."

"On...on 2485, there was this man. He...had these eyes." She sighed

"Yes. That's exactly what we're talking about."

"I don't understand, what are you asking me to do?"

"Okay. The copilot, we need you to bring him back here."

"The copilot? It's in the copilot?" I asked frantically

"Why? What does he have to do with anything?" Amanda questioned

"Don't have time to explain. We just need to talk to him. Okay?"

"How is she supposed to go in the cockpit and get the copilot—"I asked

"She does whatever it takes." Sam said to me, the turned to Amanda, "Tell him there's something broken back here, whatever will get him out of that cockpit."

"Do you know that I could lose my job if you—"

"Okay, well you're gonna lose a lot more if you don't help us out."

"Okay." She nodded

"What the hell was that? You just ignored me back there!" I yelled as soon as she left the room

"Sorry Lex, but we needed to tell her." Dean shrugged

"Sorry Lex? Seriously? That's all I get? You guys are asses." I mumbled right before the copilot walked in

"Yeah, what's the problem?" he asked right as I threw a sucker punch to his face. Dean grabbed him as he fell to the ground and pinned him before putting duct tape over his mouth

"Wait. What are you doing? You said you were just gonna talk to him." Amanda was freaking out now

"We are gonna talk to him." Dean said as he splashed holy water all over the copilot and we watched him sizzle

"Oh, my god. What's wrong with him?"

"Look. We need you calm. We need you outside the curtain." Sam said calmly

"Well, I don't underst—I don't know—"

" Just don't let anybody in, okay? Can you do that? Can you do that? Amanda? Hey!" i yelled in her face when she zoned out

"Okay. Okay." She said as she walked outsid ethe room

"Hurry up, Sam. I don't know how much longer I can hold him." Dean groaned

"Regna terrae, cantate Deo, psallite Domino—" Sam satrted, but the demon broke free of Dean's hold and pulled the tape off his mouth

"I know what happened to your girlfriend! She must have died screaming! Even now, she's burning!" he turned to look at me, "And we're waiting for you Alexa." he hissed before Dean could cover his mouth again

I just stood there, stunned. What did he mean 'We're waiting for you'? Who was waiting for me? Why? Everything that was happening was just a blur and I was lost in my own little world, just thinking about what the demon could have meant

"Lex! Alexa!" Dean shouted and I blinked, getting back into reality, to see Dean standing right in front of me

"Huh?" I asked

"It's in the plane. Hurry up. We got to finish it." He said as Sam walked back out into the aisles

I walked out as well, trying to find this damn thing and send it back to where it belongs, when all of a sudden, the plane felt like it was dropping and it started shaking violently.

"SAM! SAM!" I scream, trying to find my brother who was walking right behind me just a second ago, '_oh god. We're gonna die. This is how I'm going to die." _I thought over and over again as I sank to the floor of the aisle and hugged my knees to my chest, burying my head in my knees, when all of a sudden, a bright light shot through the plane and then leveled out

"Holy Shit."

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After everyone was escorted off of the plane and talked to by the paramedics and police officers, we decided it was out time to leave, so we slowly left the airport

"You okay?" Dean asked Sam quietly

"Dean, it knew about Jessica." Sam sighed as he turned to Dean

"Sam, these things, they, they read minds. They lie. All right? That's all it was."

Dean sighed, trying to end the conversation

It was quiet for a minute before I spoke up

"If it was lying to Sam, why'd it say that to me?" I whispered, knowing the two of them heard the demon earlier

Neither said anything and I knew what that meant. They had no clue. They didn't know what was in store for me. They didn't know if I would survive. And I knew it too.

"Nothing. It was just be an SOB." Dean chuckled awkwardly, "Come on."

I knew he ended the conversation for now, but we had to talk about it again. This wasn't going to end for us. At least not peacefully.

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We figured we should pay Jerry a visit, just to tell him that everything was finally over and he could sleep peaceful for once.

"Nobody knows what you guys did, but I do. A lot of people could have been killed." He nodded, thankful, as we walked out of the gates and Jerry shook all our hands

"Your dad's gonna be real proud." He smiled

"We'll see you around, Jerry." Sam smiled softly

"You know, Jerry." Dean said, before he left, "I meant to ask you, how did you get my cellphone number, anyway? I've only had it for like six months."

Jerry looked at Dean funny,

"Your dad gave it to me."

The breathe was sucked out of my throat when he said this. He talked to dad? That meant he was okay. That we still could find him

"What?" Sam said at the same time that Dean asked, "When did you talk to him?"

"I mean, I didn't exactly talk to him, but I called his number. His voice message said to give you a call. Thanks again, guys." He said before turning and walking away, leaving the three of us stunned

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We were still shocked over the fact that Jerry heard from Dad, or at least heard him on Dean's voicemail. We were parked on the side of the road, sitting on the trunk of the car, Sam and Dean leaning against it and me sitting behind them

"This doesn't make any sense, man. I've called Dad's number like fifty times. It's been out of service." Sam sighed as Dean dialed the number

I really don't know what I was feeling at that point. If I was excited to hear his voice. Or upset that he hasn't contacted any of us. I was brought out of my thoughts when the voice message starts playing, and Dean turns it so we could all hear

"This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son, Dean. 785-555-0179. He can help."

And that's when I realized what I was mad at Dad for. Not for ignoring us, or not calling us back, or leaving us behind. It was that he would always put Dean first. That he trusted Dean more than anyone. I mean, I kind of understand why he didn't say Sammy's name. But mine? He couldn't include me? I worked my ass off every time he ordered us to do something. I was always there when he needed someone. Most of the time even when Dean wasn't. And I was mad that he could just send all his cases to us. That he wanted us off his trail so badly that he had more work shoved our way. And that hurt. With the tears pooling in my eyes, I got off the trunk, walked over to the back seat, got in, and slammed the door, saying nothing to either of my stunned brothers.


End file.
